VLSI - good if you knew.

Fields in the VLSI:

Field:	Examples:	Domain:	Pre-requisites:
Biomedical	· MRI scans · ECG · Glucose Monitor	DSP, Digital Design	Digital Design/Verilog
Automotive	· Accelerometer to inflate Airbags · Magnetic Suspension · Emission monitor	DSP, Digital Design	Digital Design/Verilog
Computer Vision & Image processing	· Iris recognition · Fingerprint recognition · Gesture recognition · Object tracking and recognition · Compression · Image enhancement	DSP, Digital Design	Digital Design/Verilog
Communication	· Modems · Switches · Routers (intelligent · Switches)	DSP/ Digital Design	Digital Design/Verilog
MEMS	· Accelerometers · Gyro meters · Gas Sensors · Fluid diffusers	Analog/Digital/Physics	Digital Design/Verilog
Computer & peripheral design	· Bus protocols · Processors · Controllers	Digital Design	Digital Design/Verilog

DSP - Digital Signal Processing

MEMS –Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems

MRI – magnetic resonance imaging

ECG – Electrocardiography

EDA – Electronic Design Automation

Terms:

VLSI Design Flow – The essential step by step procedure taken for Design, Verification and finally implementation of a VLSI design (Analog or Digital).

Front-end design – Digital Logic Design.

Back-end design – Physical (transistor level) Implementation of the Front-end.

Digital VLSI Design – Uses Verilog to describe the design or the system. ICs designed in this flow is also called Semi-Custom ICs

Analog VLSI Design – Uses Schematic capture to describe the design or the system. The chip produced in this way are also called Custom-ICs.

Verification – Both Digital and Analog Design have Verification phase but differ.

ASIC – Application Specific Integrated Circuits (functionality can not be changed), both Digital and Analog Designs can be implemented with an ASIC flow. If the design performance is important.

FPGA – Field Programmable Gate arrays (functionality can be changed upon programming, FPGAs are re-programmable), currently not for Analog design, only digital designs. If time-to-market is important.

Physical Design for ASIC – Creating Layout of an ASIC design. This layout contains geometric representation of transistors and their connectivity. The layout is sent to fabrication facility.

Fabrication – ASIC Layout is sent to the foundry or a fabrication facility (company) to finally implement on silicon.

EDA tools – Extremely sophisticated state-of-the-art and highly accurate Software(s) needed to carry out a VLSI design flow. Some companies creating selling these tools are, Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, Agnisys, Carbon (search for more on google).

Skill Sets required for Core electronics companies:

Front-end Design: Verilog HDL, tcl-tk, Linux, C, Digital design fundamentals, good logic sense, CMOS fundamentals and basic electronics concepts.

Front-end Verification: SystemVerilog, Verilog, tcl-tk, Linux, C, Digital design fundamentals, good logic sense, CMOS fundamentals and basic electronics concepts.

Capabilities industry looks for:

Quick Learner, team player, good attitude and aptitude, determination and initiative.

Important Links:

FPGA: http://www.fpga4fun.com/ , http://www.asic-world.com/ ,

MEMS: https://www.mems-exchange.org/MEMS/what-is.html

How to choose a field?

Find out what you like doing in the electronics, the most. If you like to design micro chips, you would go for VLSI design.

If you like small controlling applications, go for embedded. And so on.

In VLSI, how to choose a domain?

If you like to design image processing hardware then you would definitely choose Signal processing as your domain. If you want to design chip that would fit in a router or want to design a Bluetooth chip you would go for communication.