With the goal of making Mexico a scientific and technological power, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, announced the creation of the National Center for Semiconductor Design, “Kutsari.” This center will enable Mexican scientists from public higher education institutions to develop new designs for semiconductors, which can be patented according to international standards that protect innovation, based on modifications to the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (LFPPI).
“The Kutsari Semiconductor Design Center, or Kutsari Project: National Semiconductor Design Center, brings together many scientists and technological developers from public higher education institutions, who will apply their intelligence, design skills, and creativity to generate new semiconductor designs,” she explained.
She added that changes to the law will accelerate the process for registering technological innovations, reducing the time required for patent approvals and allowing semiconductors to move from design to production lines for commercial sale.
“We are going to speed up the entire patent process so that they can be sold, in collaboration with public and private companies for development. This ensures that the work does not remain solely at the design stage. Once patented by a higher education institution and its researchers, these designs can be marketed or incorporated into public, private, or joint ventures for semiconductor production,” she stated.
The headquarters of the Kutsari Semiconductor Design Center —which means “sand” in Purépecha— will be located in Puebla, Jalisco, and Sonora, where semiconductor development is part of the Sonora Plan. The center will be coordinated by the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics (INAOE) and the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV). The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) will also participate.
“This is a great achievement for the country. There is already significant research being conducted in Mexico. What we are doing now is bringing all these brilliant minds together,” she emphasized.
She highlighted that semiconductor development is part of the Mexico Plan, which seeks to increase domestic production with the collaboration of national private initiatives and foreign investments. This regional development strategy is expected to pave the way for scientific and technological innovations in the country.
“We want to see scientific and technological advancements in Mexico that enable the production of all kinds of innovations here. So yes, this initiative is part of the Mexico Plan,” she confirmed.
The Secretary of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation, Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, stated that the project will address several key areas, including proposing a legal and regulatory framework to strengthen technology transfer, promoting ecosystems that encompass the entire supply chain in Development Poles, and encouraging technological production in semiconductor electronics.
The national coordinator of the Semiconductor Project and Director of Innovation and Wellbeing of Mexico, Edmundo Gutiérrez Domínguez, explained that the semiconductor industry has a supply chain comprising three stages: design, manufacturing, and testing, encapsulation, and assembly of chips.
To foster development, a strategy has been established to support the program for industry growth, aligned with the Mexico Plan. This includes the creation of the Kutsari National Center for Semiconductor Design, which is expected to be fully consolidated by 2027.
The center will leverage decades of Mexican scientific expertise to provide solutions for the local and global markets, particularly in the automotive, household appliance, and medical equipment industries.
An Accelerated Training Program for designers will also be launched to support the center and provide training services to other design centers in both the public and private sectors.
In a second stage, slated for 2026, a semiconductor manufacturing model will be defined. This model will consider public, private, or joint ventures for building a semiconductor manufacturing facility, potentially operational by 2029, to secure all three links in the semiconductor supply chain by 2030.
The Secretary of Anti-Corruption and Good Governance, Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, noted that semiconductors could become a strategic sector for Mexico. Therefore, the LFPPI will be modified to align with international standards and provide scientists with assurances that their innovations are fully protected. This includes a reservation right for 12 months and streamlining procedures to reduce the processing time from over four years to three years.
The Director General of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), Santiago Nieto Castillo, explained that the LFPPI amendments aim to introduce provisional patents, securing rights to the invention and ensuring that it is not registered elsewhere in the world. The changes also seek to protect the rightful ownership of patents in cases of proven plagiarism.
He also mentioned ongoing collaboration with the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation to create a group of specialists who, under confidentiality agreements, will examine 48,000 pending patent applications in the country.
The President of Mexico was accompanied by the Director General of CINVESTAV, Alberto Sánchez Hernández; the Director General of INAOE, David Sánchez de la Llave; the Head of the Design Center in Guadalajara, Ramón Parra Michel; the Head of the Design Center in Puebla, Alejandro Bautista Castillo; the Director General of CIDESI, Carlos Rubio González; the Director General of the UNAM Physics Institute, Cecilia Noguez Garrido; and the Director General of CIMAV, Leticia Torres Guerra.
Also present were the Head of the Semiconductor Laboratory at INAOE, Alfonso Torres Jácome; the Secretary of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation of Puebla, Celina Peña Guzmán; the Undersecretary of Technological Development, Linkage, and Development of Puebla, Patricia Guzmán Velázquez; the Secretary of Economic Development of Jalisco, Cindy Blanco Ochoa; Senior Designer of INAOE, Miguel Rocha Pérez; and Rocío Jáuregui from the National Laboratory of Ultracold Matter and Quantum Information.