Available career options
Some good segments include industrial and automotive microcontrollers, wireless infrastructure, consumer digital TV and handheld devices, and computing/storage infrastructure. Emerging areas include smart-energy product development, medical telemetry application, and high-end application processor development.
Freshers are initially given block-level and verification tasks. However, with experience and talent, they get to work on more challenging tasks. For example, while front-end engineers get into design and architectural engineering, back-end engineers get into automation and full-chip tasks.
Once an engineer has gained enough hands-on experience, he can either choose to grow as a team leader, then project leader and project manger, or become an individual contributor working on tasks like methodology development and R&D. You can climb the ladder through such positions as member of technical staff, senior member of technical staff, principal member of technical staff and chip architect. The various positions that you can apply for include design engineer, product engineer, test engineer, application engineer, process engineer, packaging engineer and CAD engineer as per your area of interest.
Kathuria adds: “There are a number of areas to choose from. One such area is reconfigurable computing. It is an interesting and pretty recent development in microelectronics that involves fabricating circuits which can be reprogrammed on the fly! And no, we are not talking about microcontrollers running with EEPROM inside. Reconfigurable computing involves specially fabricated FPGAs that when programmed act just like normal electronic circuits. These are designed such that by changing or reprogramming the connections between numerous sub-modules, the FPGAs can be made to behave like any circuit you wish.”
Opportunities and desired skillset
To enter, survive and grow in this competitive industry, you must have the specialised skillset and qualification along with right aptitude and a desire to continuously learn and evolve. You should be willing to put extra efforts to keep abreast of the latest technology trends that are shaping the world.
Major recruiters in this field are Texas Instruments, PMC Sierra, Infineon, Alliance Semiconductor, Freescale Semiconductor, Analog Devices, Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, HCL, Intel, Lucent, Micron Tech, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Philips Semiconductor, Qualcomm, Sasken, Atrenta, Conexant, Moschip, Cradle Tech, Synplicity, Wipro, TCS comand eInfochips.
While hiring a VLSI engineer, these companies look for strong fundamen-tals in basic electronics and semiconductor concepts like system design, timing and semiconductor physics. They also look for good knowledge of languages like VHDL, Verilog, Spec-man and System Verilog, as well as good programming skills and scripting abilities. In lateral hires, they look for strong domain-understanding or sec-tor-specific knowledge, as the industry is moving towards vertical offerings in chip design.
Surinder Bhagat, country HR manager, Freescale Semiconductor India, says, “We prefer an educational back-ground of BE/B.Tech, ME/M.Tech or PhD with specialization in electronics, telecommunications, electrical or VLSI domain. Typically, these professionals should have hands-on experience in systems design, digital ASIC design, physical design, mixed-signal IC design, VHDL or very high-speed inte-grated circuit, VLSI design, circuit design and simulations, microcontrollers, digital PCB design and routing.”
How much remuneration to expect?
The industry offers good compensation to experienced candidates. Generally, salaries are based on the individual skillsets and qualification. According to Aaghoramoorthy, this is a market known for dynamic shifts in technology and hence engineers with experience in working with newer design and verification methodologies are in high demand.
In the long run, engineers who have built strong domain skills and possess strong fundamental knowledge of circuit, logic design or verification are valued, since they can quickly learn the electronics tool related aspects.
“An engineer starting his career with a bachelor’s degree can expect an annual package of Rs 400,000 to 700,000. Many companies give higher salaries to engineers with M.Tech or PhD based on their continual performance, knowledge and competence. One can expect a steep growth in remuneration as well as roles and responsibilities. For example, a fresher can easily move up to become a team leader or project manager in a span of seven to ten years. Typically, fresh college graduates join as a design engineer and continue to grow their skill level over next six to twelve months in design methodology, along with working on other design projects,” says Bhagat.
Agarwal classifies the pay pack-ages according to recruiters from the embedded industry: “Companies which are large in terms of revenue or client base and have already set a global landmark—for example, Intel, Tata Elxsi, Synopsys, IBM, Xilinx, Windriver and Texas Instruments—offer anywhere between Rs 400,000 and 500,000 per annum to fresh engineering graduates. Other companies having a decent revenue inflow—for example, Coreel Technologies, Moschip, Radel, PACE, eInfochips and Arada Systems—offer anywhere between Rs 250,000 and 350,000 per annum. Another category of companies comprises small set-ups or start-ups that are catching up well with the market—for example, Riversilica, Fossilshale, Saankhya, Whizchip and Accord. These offer anywhere between Rs 150,000 and 250,000 per annum, depending on the calibre of the candidate.”
Hence there is no doubt that with all the innovation and rapid development, this field offers you ample scope to grow. So if you already enjoy the brainteasers in designing and testing the chips, get set for the strong growth promised by the VLSI industry.
Some good segments include industrial and automotive microcontrollers, wireless infrastructure, consumer digital TV and handheld devices, and computing/storage infrastructure. Emerging areas include smart-energy product development, medical telemetry application, and high-end application processor development.
Freshers are initially given block-level and verification tasks. However, with experience and talent, they get to work on more challenging tasks. For example, while front-end engineers get into design and architectural engineering, back-end engineers get into automation and full-chip tasks.
Once an engineer has gained enough hands-on experience, he can either choose to grow as a team leader, then project leader and project manger, or become an individual contributor working on tasks like methodology development and R&D. You can climb the ladder through such positions as member of technical staff, senior member of technical staff, principal member of technical staff and chip architect. The various positions that you can apply for include design engineer, product engineer, test engineer, application engineer, process engineer, packaging engineer and CAD engineer as per your area of interest.
Kathuria adds: “There are a number of areas to choose from. One such area is reconfigurable computing. It is an interesting and pretty recent development in microelectronics that involves fabricating circuits which can be reprogrammed on the fly! And no, we are not talking about microcontrollers running with EEPROM inside. Reconfigurable computing involves specially fabricated FPGAs that when programmed act just like normal electronic circuits. These are designed such that by changing or reprogramming the connections between numerous sub-modules, the FPGAs can be made to behave like any circuit you wish.”
Opportunities and desired skillset
To enter, survive and grow in this competitive industry, you must have the specialised skillset and qualification along with right aptitude and a desire to continuously learn and evolve. You should be willing to put extra efforts to keep abreast of the latest technology trends that are shaping the world.
Major recruiters in this field are Texas Instruments, PMC Sierra, Infineon, Alliance Semiconductor, Freescale Semiconductor, Analog Devices, Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, HCL, Intel, Lucent, Micron Tech, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Philips Semiconductor, Qualcomm, Sasken, Atrenta, Conexant, Moschip, Cradle Tech, Synplicity, Wipro, TCS comand eInfochips.
While hiring a VLSI engineer, these companies look for strong fundamen-tals in basic electronics and semiconductor concepts like system design, timing and semiconductor physics. They also look for good knowledge of languages like VHDL, Verilog, Spec-man and System Verilog, as well as good programming skills and scripting abilities. In lateral hires, they look for strong domain-understanding or sec-tor-specific knowledge, as the industry is moving towards vertical offerings in chip design.
Surinder Bhagat, country HR manager, Freescale Semiconductor India, says, “We prefer an educational back-ground of BE/B.Tech, ME/M.Tech or PhD with specialization in electronics, telecommunications, electrical or VLSI domain. Typically, these professionals should have hands-on experience in systems design, digital ASIC design, physical design, mixed-signal IC design, VHDL or very high-speed inte-grated circuit, VLSI design, circuit design and simulations, microcontrollers, digital PCB design and routing.”
How much remuneration to expect?
The industry offers good compensation to experienced candidates. Generally, salaries are based on the individual skillsets and qualification. According to Aaghoramoorthy, this is a market known for dynamic shifts in technology and hence engineers with experience in working with newer design and verification methodologies are in high demand.
In the long run, engineers who have built strong domain skills and possess strong fundamental knowledge of circuit, logic design or verification are valued, since they can quickly learn the electronics tool related aspects.
“An engineer starting his career with a bachelor’s degree can expect an annual package of Rs 400,000 to 700,000. Many companies give higher salaries to engineers with M.Tech or PhD based on their continual performance, knowledge and competence. One can expect a steep growth in remuneration as well as roles and responsibilities. For example, a fresher can easily move up to become a team leader or project manager in a span of seven to ten years. Typically, fresh college graduates join as a design engineer and continue to grow their skill level over next six to twelve months in design methodology, along with working on other design projects,” says Bhagat.
Agarwal classifies the pay pack-ages according to recruiters from the embedded industry: “Companies which are large in terms of revenue or client base and have already set a global landmark—for example, Intel, Tata Elxsi, Synopsys, IBM, Xilinx, Windriver and Texas Instruments—offer anywhere between Rs 400,000 and 500,000 per annum to fresh engineering graduates. Other companies having a decent revenue inflow—for example, Coreel Technologies, Moschip, Radel, PACE, eInfochips and Arada Systems—offer anywhere between Rs 250,000 and 350,000 per annum. Another category of companies comprises small set-ups or start-ups that are catching up well with the market—for example, Riversilica, Fossilshale, Saankhya, Whizchip and Accord. These offer anywhere between Rs 150,000 and 250,000 per annum, depending on the calibre of the candidate.”
Hence there is no doubt that with all the innovation and rapid development, this field offers you ample scope to grow. So if you already enjoy the brainteasers in designing and testing the chips, get set for the strong growth promised by the VLSI industry.
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