Scope and opportunities in electronics and VLSI field

It is very important to know the scope of electronics and semiconductor engineering for engineering students and about the industry growth. If you are not sure about the How to make career in VLSI Semiconductor industry, then stick to the end of this blog to know everything about semiconductor industry.   

Through this blog i will touch upon all the question that come in every fresher's mind during his electronics engineering time  .

• What is electronics engineering ?
• What is Future and Scope of Electronics Engineering ?
• Do we have jobs in core electronics field ?
• What types company exist in electronics industry ?
• What types of skill set required to enter in semiconductor VLSI company ? 

Nowadays the electronics industry is growing very fast, due to which the electronics engineer scope has increased greatly in India as well. In the last few years, it has been seen lot of startups has opened in India and increasing day by day.

Electronics engineering is quite a vast field in that all electrical components are designed such as microprocessors, transistors, diodes and microcontrollers, all these components help to build a circuit and PCB’s system like wireless phone, satellite system and telecommunication etc.

Some popular electronics engineering field are

1. Analog engineering
2. Digital engineering
3. Embedded systems
4. Power electronics states
5. Microelectronics engineering

Semiconductor/VLSI Engineering scope and challenges

VLSI engineering design is a process that will convert a large and complex electronics logic design into a small piece of silicon that is known as chip (SOC). That SOC are based on a particular type of application.

Ex. Different Microprocessor chip are made for mobile phone functioning.

We have realized that electronics engineering is still lagging in some places.

1. Innovation in the electronics field is comparative slow process, first of all a prototype is prepared and when it is successful, only then the product is customized, due to which this process requires a lot of effort, time and money.
2. In computer science field when a new software or app is launched, the consumer does not think much to use it ex. when a new camera app being launched in market customer start to use very often, while a new electronics product has to be very strong to make a place in the market because all the consumers trust and like known brand
3. If any innovation happens in Electronics field, then it will enable software market in many ways. Ex. Wi-Fi, it is using in no of application.

Pros

1. Electronics Engineering is going on its boom in 2020. There are a lot of new innovations coming in the market like Robotics, ADAS and IOT's
2. Electronics engineers have excellent knowledge of both software and hardware of all their products.
3. Electronics items are aggressively using at all places whether it is a home, hospital or manufacturing company

Cons

1. The electronics field is quite tough if we want to launch a new product in market, then from designing to implementation and finally its fabrication requires lot of skill, time and money.
2. Colleges/University coarse work still not upgraded according to market trend and technology, due to which students suffers a lot and do not prepare themselves for time to market and in the end they face a lot of difficulty in getting jobs in core electronics field, most of the time they give up and stop chasing their dream and eventually join other stream company.

Below VLSI design chart showing, different type jobs available in the VLSI semiconductor industry.

What types of Job opportunity exist in VLSI semiconductor companies?

Most important question often strike in the mind for all fresh graduates that what type of company exists in VLSI semiconductor industry. They get confused which type of company would be good for to them start career.

VLSI industry broadly classified into two types

1. VLSI Product companies
2. VLSI Service companies

Difference between VLSI Product and Service Company

A. Product Company

They are responsible to design and develop product for the different application in market segment. They continuously innovate on new technology and responsible to design ASIC/SOC. They work from understanding the market need to design end product for them. They are responsible for hardware design and software, testing and validation of product and then finally deployment of product for the customer. Some known product companies are Intel, Mediatek, Qualcomm, Samsung etc. they continuously develop product for different market segments and innovate time to time. Engineers working in these companies get exposure about the whole product design life cycle and there different challenges. In this company Engineers with different skills set work together to achieve their goal to develop a best and unique product for market.

Product Companies are categories into two,

a.       EDA companies (Engineering Design Automation):

Before EDA companies IC were manually designed since software tools were not present in that era. In 1981 EDA industry came into existence. These companies make the software tools that are used to build the Integrated circuits and PCB’s. As the design complexity is increasing day by day, we need smarter and faster software solution to handle the design efficiently and reducing the design cycle time, that is the reason multiple software tools are being used by the designers in the chip design flow to make the job easy. Some of EDA companies are listed below:

                                                               i.      Synopsys

                                                             ii.      Cadence Design System

                                                            iii.      Mentor Siemens

                                                           iv.      Dorado Design Automation

                                                             v.      Agnisys

What are the jobs opportunity and roles offered by EDA companies?

                         
                          1.  RnD Engineers – RnD Engineers are responsible to write the software, they are also known are software engineer. Programming language skills are required to develop software. EX. C/C++ , Java, Python and data structures etc.
               2. Product Engineers – they works with RnD engineers for enablement of few features in the software tool based on new technology and designers demands. They have the good idea of design flow and its challenges.
                   3. Product Validation Engineers –they are also known as QA engineers, when product and RnD engineer enable any new feature/option in the tool , PV engineer job is to make sure to test the quality of the feature along with new feature enablement shouldn’t disturb the older features of the tool.
                  4. Application Engineer – AE provides handshake between the EDA and design companies. They sell their software tools in design companies and also responsible for their smooth functioning. Whenever designer face any tool related issue they directly reported to them, AE works on the issue and provide the solution to the designers on urgent basis.

         

          b.      Design Companies

They have their own product in the market and works for full design cycle. Design Company target for one application or more at the same time, they work from designing to implementation of hardware and software, testing and validation of design product. Few Design houses are

·   Intel

·   Qualcomm

·   NXP

·   STMicroelectronics

·   Infineon

·   Mediatek

·   Broadcom

·   AMD

·   ARM

·   NVIDIA

·   Samsung

·   Texas Instrument and so on

What are the jobs and roles offered by Product design companies?

There are varieties of job profiles exist in the design company, every profile demands different skill set. Some of Job profiles are

·         Architecture Designer

·         RTL Designer

·         Verification Engineer

·         DFT Engineer

·         STA Engineer

·         Synthesis Engineer

·         Physical Design Engineer

·         Physical Verification Engineer

·         Analog Designer

·         Analog Layout Engineer

In the upcoming posts we will learn more about each and every Profiles, requirements and skills set necessary.

B. Service Company :

 This type of company provides services to the product companies. They don’t have their   own development cycle and product in market. To speed up of design cycle, product   companies generally outsourced their some part of design and implementation work to     service companies.

   Some well known names of Service companies are

·         Synapse design

·         HCL technology

·         Wipro

·         Eximius

·         Mirafra

·         UST global and many more

Why VLSI jobs are difficult for fresher’s ?

Surely it is a tough thing to get the job in VLSI field when we compared with other engineering jobs, but yes it is not impossible hustle. I have figured out few reasons why VLSI industry is not willing to hire many fresher.

A. Huge gap between the college curriculum and industry skill set :  I am not saying, the course of college do not works, it helps to some extent and necessary to build a strong basic foundation, college course only help 5-10%, curriculum never touch upon the skill that would be needed for industry to perform day to day productive work. Ex. still colleges are stuck on 8085 microprocessor and 8051 microcontroller, but industry is working way beyond that.

B. Industry is not willing to invest their time/money: Most of the VLSI companies are not ready to hire the fresh graduates and then train them. Fresh Graduates don’t have those skills what vlsi companies needed, approx. 6-12 month are needed to train any fresher and make them productive for the company work. In company perspective fresher initial salaries is a huge investment and along with some senior folks are required to mentor/guide to a fresh graduate, due to which senior folks could partial focus on their current work and share half bandwidth in mentorship. Time and money investment of a company is very experience Ex. in a mobile chip market, every quarter there are new phone launch with latest specs if company’s all engineers don’t contribute equally to make it possible than they will lose the time to market with the competitors.

Generally companies always prefer to hire experience guys, so that they can start contributing in the ongoing projects and be productive for them.   

 

How to make career in VLSI industry ?

Here i am sharing my experience and consolidating in the form of few ways ,  how can you prepare yourself and make career in VLSI industry ?

1. Work on basics concepts and knowledge of VLSI  like

a.       About CMOS fabrication process 

b.      Transistors family  composition and operation

                                                               i.      BJT

                                                             ii.      FET

                                                            iii.      MOSFET

                                                           iv.      CMOS etc.

c.       CMOS device different type of capacitance involved in circuit.

d.      Digital Electronics concept like

                                                               i.      No. System

                                                             ii.      Combinational Circuits Ex. Added , Subtractor, Multiplexer, de-multiplexer , Decoder , Encoder and circuit designing with that.

                                                            iii.      flip flops,  latches and its working with diagram

                                                           iv.      Sequential Circuits like Counter, Registers their working operation and significance.

e.      Timing Concept of Sequential element like Flip flop and latches

                                                               i.      Different types of timing path

                                                             ii.      Setup and Hold time of the Flip flop

                                                            iii.      Setup and Hold checks and its calculation in the timing path

                                                           iv.      recovery and removal timing concept in Latches

                                                             v.      Clock related terminologies

·         clock transition or clock slew

·         clock skew

·         clock latency and so on

f.        propagation delay in the circuits

                                                               i.      Delays in the combination and sequential circuits

                                                             ii.      Delays in the interconnect

g.       Basics Knowledge of UNIX/LINUX system

h.      Programming and Scripting languages

                                                               i.      HDL language : If anyone is looking for RTL designing job , these language must to have 

1.       VHDL

2.       Verilog etc.

                                                             ii.      Scripting Language: It is like cherry on cake, Scripting is very helpful and make the designers job easy and fast. It is good to have

1.       Bash, shell, tcl/tk, perl etc.

2. Certification courses from premium VLSI training institute

There are lot of VLSI training academy are present in the market , they provide 6-10 month certification courses to the fresher and also promise for the placement . It could be a good choice for fresher to learn about EDA tools, skills and about latest technology. I am not recommending any training institute here.

3. Specialized master degree from the premium colleges/University

If anyone facing issue getting job in VLSI core, they may pursue for M.tech/MS in any specialization like VLSI and Microelectronics from Indian and Abroad. When companies are looking for fresher generally they go for tier1 or tier2 colleges campus hiring. So it could be a good option.

4. Project Trainee and Internship

There are many companies who generally run the program time to time to hire Trainees/Contractor for 6-12 months on stipend. This could be the best way to enter in the VLSI industry. Fresher can learn much about the trending skill set, current technology, EDA tools and company expectations/environment. Every company has different own method to hire the trainees , if trainees perform well during their internship, then there may be bright chances to get absorb by the organization on the permanent role if any new position come.

5. Target Startups and Service companies

Many startup and service semiconductors companies are exist in market, with right skill try there the chances are much brighter than big product company to get entry level job. Service Company works for Product companies, so their men power requirement varies time to time then they prefer to hire fresher on comparative less salary than Product Company. 

What skills are required for VLSI engineer?

As I have discussed about different type of Job in VLSI industry, based upon the profile different skills are required. In the upcoming post I will try to share concepts and skills required for

1. Physical Design Engineer
2. Physical Verification Engineer
3. STA Engineer
4. Synthesis Engineer
5. DFT Engineer

What is salary of VLSI engineer in India and USA?

Yes, VLSI engineer Salaries are quite high than software engineers. Average salary is ~5 LPA
VLSI engineer Salary Stats

1. Fresher salary in Service Company is 3-8 LPA
2. Fresher salary in Product MNC Company is 9-16 LPA

What is the hiring process in VLSI companies?

1. Resume Shortlisting:  Process starts with the resume shortlisting; first hiring company looks candidate resume/CV if his/her skill, experience and competency matches with the current requirement, then candidate will receive call and interview process will get start. That is why resume plays very critical role for the process.

Some tips and trick

a.       Mention all relevant technical skill that companies are looking for.

b.      Mention all relevant project and its challenges

c.       Don’t write false information in terms of skills, project and tool knowledge

d.  Most of the fresher write strength, weakness and mention that they have knowledge of MS excel Power point etc. Avoid writing such thing. Write only technical thing, what companies focus on.  

      2. Interview Process: if hiring company shortlist the CV, then they may conduct written test or direct interview (telephonic and F2F) it depends on company and employee experience level.  No. of rounds in interview process may also vary company to company; it may be 2-6 from technical panel to Director Level and all.

 3. HR rounds: If Candidate clears all technical rounds, then HR come into picture. HR asks some managerial questions and describes company needs/policy etc. If everything goes fine at the end HR release offer letter and discuss it with the candidate.
     
       4. On boarding: at last candidate join the company

Wish you all the luck for Job hunting in the VLSI industry