Career in VLSI/ Chip Designing - options and opportunities

Introduction VLSI, 'Very Large Scale Integration' is all about Integrated Circuit (IC) design. In other words it is called Chip design. Integrated circuit design is a subset of electrical engineering and computer engineering, consisting the particular logic and circuit design techniques required to design integrated circuits. Chip Designers are engineers who define chip’s architecture, create circuit designs, run simulations, supervise layout, tape out the chip to the foundry and evaluate the prototype once the chip returns from the laboratory. This field is suitable for those students who to do something more challenging and creative. Students with electronic background with good programming skills, strong mathematics and analytical skills are well suited for this career. Today, the two most popular languages used for chip designing are Verilog and VHDL. Nowadays, we have also become dependant on these chips as they are present in most of the electronic appliances which we use everyday, from mobiles, remote of TV to dishwashers and so on. This has increased the demand of chip designers in every sector, be it automobiles, consumer electronics etc. Performance and growth of industry in India At present, India is showing a huge potential in the market and its chip industry is growing at a rate of 20 per cent annually. There are over 160 Chip design firms in India. The immense pool of talent and growing domestic market has helped the country emerge as an important centre for chip design. The increasing demand for consumer electronic items has increased various career opportunities in chip design industry. Demand of Chip Designers is in excess compared to their supply. All the NITs and IITs totally produce only one fourth of the demand annually. To address the shortage of engineers possessing the right skills, the Indian government has set up a special manpower development programme (SMDP) in this area and spent a huge amount to introduce VLSI in institutes like NITs and IITs. Options and Opportunities In this industry the main job functions of a Chip Designer are Designing, Testing, Applications, Production and Process Engineering. The job options available to the engineers in this field are Design Engineer, CAD Engineer, Packaging Engineer, Product Engineer, Applications/Systems engineer, Test Engineer, Process Engineer. A chip design engineer's job ranges right from the architecture, logic design, circuit design and physical design of the chip to the testing and verification of the final product. Depending on the experience of the candidate in the industry his role could range from a technical individual to a technical leader to an engineering manager. Some of the major recruitment companies are HCL Technologies, Intel, Micron Tech, Alliance Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Wipro, Synopsis, Cadence etc. Courses Available The IITs, NITs and many other universities offer various courses with high quality education in VLSI or Chip Designing. - M.E /M.Tech in VLSI Design - M.E /M.Tech in Embedded Systems Technologies - M.Tech in Embedded Systems and Design - M.Tech in Microelectronics and VLSI Design - Post Graduate Diploma in VLSI and Embedded Systems - Post Graduate Diploma in VLSI Design through Correspondence/Distance learning. - Diploma in VLSI Designing - Diploma in Embedded Systems Design Qualification required - Students can take admission in theses courses after passing 10+2 with at least 60% aggregate marks from any recognised board. - In order to pursue Master’s degree a candidate should have at least Bachelor’s degree (B.E/B.Tech) in electronics, telecommunications or computer science with high score in GATE. Some good institutes - Anna University: College of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu - Shri Vaishnav Institute of Technology and Science, Indore, MP - Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Goa - JB Institute of Engineering and Technology, AP - VEDA IIT, Hydrerabad - BITS, Pilani, - Punjab University - Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Hydrerabad, AP - DOEACC Centre, Kerala - Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal - International Institute of Information Technology, School of Information Technology, Pune, Maharashtra - National Institute of Technology, Kerala - Manipal Centre of Information Science - Bharath Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu - Bharati Vidyapeeths College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra - Annamalai University Directorate of Distance Education, Tamil Nadu Regards, VLSI Engi Tech Pvt. Ltd.