Analogue Design: A Challenging But Satisfying Option

With good understanding and skills in areas such as custom circuit layout, electrical design and simulation, analogue designers plan, organize, execute and document as they steer their organization towards its goals. The Indian electronics industry looks for designers who are flexible across domains and technologies. Especially, an expert in analogue design is highly valued. Lots of analogue design experience and strong basics in the field can fetch high-profile jobs in India. Analogue scope in a digital world Analogue circuit design requires more skills than digital systems design. An analogue circuit must be designed by hand, and the process is much less automated than digital systems. A design engineer having strong understanding of analogue electronics and capable of handling analogue components, small signals and the sensor to the instrumentation will always sit in a high profile having scope to work in power, digital, RF and instrumentation.

affect analogue circuit design. Analogue designs are a combination of discrete devices (BJTs, FETs, etc), ICs (more often than not, op-amps) and passives. Therefore a good understanding of discrete devices behavior in linear mode will hold one in good stead for analogue designs. The analogous conclusion The opportunities for analogue designers are numerous, there are fewer engineers wanting to take up analogue circuit design as a career. On that count, if you have proved your mettle in analogue design, you would most certainly find a job that interests you and you will definitely do well in mixed-signal and digital design, where the opportunities are a lot more.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS: FAST TRACK FOR SMART BRAINS

Most of the electronic devices around us contain a
processor with some embedded software. Unlike desktop computers, which can be programmed to do any general-purpose task, these embedded systems do highly focused and specific jobs. The market for embedded systems is quite big. Increasing sales of consumer electronics goods, telecom/ networking market and growth in the use of portable/wireless products globally are driving the growth of the semiconductor design industry. If you have a creative and innovative bent of mind, a career in embedded systems can be extremely rewarding. The industry offers a variety of jobs in the areas of chip design, applications engineering, product and test engineering, systems design and embedded software development. The positions in these job families range from the role of a technical individual contributor to technical lead position to an engineering management role. Lots of embedded systems work in particular, embedded software developmentis being done in India. The embedded software industry is expanding as third-party service providers are moving up the value chain. Captives largely work on the hardware abstraction layer and the device driver layer. While many captives outsource application-related work to third-party service providers and Indian design companies to shorten their time-to-market, others prefer to grow their domain-specific embedded application expertise in-house.

Qualification For analogue board design, a bachelors degree in electronics or one of its offshoots like electronics & communication or instrumentation would do. However, for engineers wanting to pursue a career in IC or VLSI design, a masters programme in microelectronics and VLSI design or its equivalent would be the minimum requirement. Entry-level roles The entry-level roles mainly include design and verification of analogue blocks. Their designation would be that of a design engineer focusing on areas like circuit design, layout design and circuit characterization. Skills to be developed The effective analogue circuit designs require a strong understanding of core linear devices and how they

Embedded system fundamentals

An embedded system consists of hardware and

software. When chips are built into systems and software is loaded on that for a particular functionality, it becomes an embedded system. VLSI is used to design integrated circuits by combining millions and billions of transistors into a single chip, and involves various design activities ranging from specification to tape-out of the chip. VLSI results in reduced sizes and costs for embedded systems. Instead of using separate chips for the processor, memory and associate digital circuitry, one can build a single integrated circuit that contains the complete functionality of the embedded system. While the embedded system sits on top of everything, VLSI is the core part of an embedded system as the whole system depends on VLSI design.

boards. Reference boards are used to validate the capabilities of designed silicon chips. The embedded hardware designer is responsible for hardware design schematic , PCB layout, BOM creation, hardware board debugging and testing, and system integration testing. Desired skills are hardware design using 8-/16-/32-bit microcontrollers, microprocessor-based systems, design of mediumfrequency boards, hardware design of analogue , mixed signal and digital, and understanding/ implementation of the EMI and EMC concepts to hardware design.

3.5 million jobs by 2015, but talent missing

The Indian semiconductor design industry, comprising very large-scale integrated (VLSI) design, board design and embedded software companies, has set its footprints across the country. According to an ISA-Ernst & Young report of 2011, this industry was about $6.5 billion in 2009 and is expected to log a compound annual growth rate of 17.3 per cent to reach $10.6 billion in 2012.

Roles available
Embedded engineers write the software that controls the VLSI chips. Embedded software can be any code which interacts with the hardware layer, ranging from the hardware abstraction layer, device drivers, kernel programming to application programming. To take up embedded software development as career, you need to have a working knowledge of C, C++ and Java, with some exposure to application software development. If you have already done some programming for an embedded system, you can expand your horizons by broadening your skill sets. Embedded software is being developed using a variety of embedded and real-time operating systems, such as embedded NT, Windows CE and RTLinux. In addition, a variety of development tools and IDEs for C, C++ and Java are available. You need to learn application development in these various environments. To be a successful programmer, you need a good understanding of design alternativeshow to choose a processor, an operating system, a programming language so that you can develop cost-effective, reliable embedded software with minimal development time. As many of the systems become network enabled, a working knowledge of network programming is also important. Also, you need to be aware of the diversity of application areas and the specific requirements of each. As a hardware/board designer, you could work on reference board design, new board design, and board design derivatives and modifications on existing

The report also suggests that the industry promises 3.5 million jobs by 2015. But unfortunately, the industry is grappling with the problem of talent shortage. Embedded software segment now offers more highvalue activities relating to middleware, driver design and associated applications. The main reason for increased adoption of embedded software is its use by electronics companies for increased device functionality, reduced time-to-market and reduction in costs.

Raw talent: key challenge for companies

One of the basic reasons behind the shortage of talent in the country is the significant industry academia divide. Several engineering universities in the country are far from understanding the requirements of the industry and train the students accordingly. This has resulted into two extremes, where on one hand the industry needs talent and on the other hand there is an abundance of engineers who have not been trained in necessary skills. Industry veterans term these engineers as raw talent and training to make them productive is a key challenge for them. Companies face a tough time trying to recruit the right

set of people. There are certain portions in the entire embedded ecosystem where generic electronics knowledge will help. Hardware design is one example. But then there are certain other segments, which require a good experience in device driver, software amplification, etc. The industry is missing this talent big time.

in at every stage. Thus as an engineer, you need to ensure that the learning matrix never falls and you are up-to-date with new technologies that are being introduced. As a fresher you might typecast yourself into a certain role. Later on, this boundary has to blur totally. You have to start understanding both hardware and software, device drivers, register mapping and application software development. Also, as embedded system is part of many applications, you have to figure out the domain knowledge. For example, if you are working on embedded systems for telecom applications, you should be able to find out the user experience and with better creativity decide which layout or colour will look better. You start becoming a system architect finally. Automotive, telecom and security are the industries where a lot of embedded work is going on. Industrial and medical applications, which were lagging behind, are also making significant improvements. As a professional, you can switch from one vertical to another as you gain knowledge of how an embedded system works. One added advantage here will be knowing the particular vertical requirements and applying the related skill set.

Desired qualifications and skillset

The minimum requirement is a bachelors/ masters degree in engineering with specialisation in electronics and electrical or computer science. But it is preferable for a candidate to have some hardware integration experience, good software coding skills and the ability to deal with and develop algorithms to solve problems. Today, universities are offering special streams like software design and engineering, microelectronics and automotive embedded system. It is a great idea to undergo such a course as it will provide the requisite industry knowledge in the field you want to pursue a career. Various certificate courses too are available to hone your skills. By participating in short-term courses, candidates can better handle projects independently, thus enabling companies to induct new staff in a project with minimal domain-specific training. In general, familiarisation with the following subjects is beneficial: VLSI technology, embedded systems, design, testing and verification of VLSI circuits, digital system design using VHDL, design of analogue and mixed mode VLSI circuits, real-time embedded systems, low-power VLSI design, computer-aided design tools for VLSI design, algorithms for VLSI design automation, design of VLSI systems, advanced embedded system design and VLSI sub-system design. One important thing to remember though, is that you should not think about yourself as only a software guy or a hardware guy. Rather, see yourself as more of a systems person. You should be versatile enough to be able to take risks and challenges when troubleshooting a problem at the board moving between hardware and software areas.

Compensation
Salaries are based on individual skillset and qualifications. An engineer starting his career with a bachelors degree can expect anything between Rs. 400,000 and Rs. 700,000 per annum. Many companies give higher salaries to engineers with M.Tech or Ph.D based on continual performance, knowledge and competence. Unlike many other industries, the embedded industry has seen quite a steep salary growth across levels and it still continues.

Some good institutions to study

IITs, NITs, BITs, Punjab Engineering College, IT BHU, Thapar and Delhi Technical University are some of the names to reckon with for studying embedded systems. Several engineering colleges now offer M.Tech as well as certificate courses in embedded systems design. Especially in Bengaluru, private institutions are offering short term courses, which are more focused.

Career growth over time

As you gain experience and knowledge, you will be required to work more independently making decisions, developing designs and solving problems. With further experience, you may become a technical specialist or supervisor in a team of engineers or technicians. Eventually, you may become an engineering manager or move into other managerial or completely technical domain. The market is very dynamic with competition looming

Looking ahead
Much of the growth in embedded computer systems will be propelled by more sophisticated, cloud connected embedded systems, which will have faster chips, better connectivity and more advanced operating systems and analytical software.

An ever-increasing number of appliances will be monitored or controlled remotely. Further developments in microelectronics will lead to an era of invisible computing, wherein the computer does the job we need but without an ubiquitous presence. As electronics becomes more and more pervasive in our lives with the mobile phones, intelligent home appliances and vehicles, and more recently the insulin pumps that reside inside the body, a career in embedded systems seems only to be getting better with time, for these are no longer talking of cutting edge but technology at the bleeding edge!

computer to your car, your brand new state-of-the-art digital camera, cellphones, and whatever electronics item you have. Today, there is a huge demand in the industry for VLSI designers to develop field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementations, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs and SoCs. The VLSI industry has an added attraction of being a strong domain for patents filing, invention disclosures and applied research.

VLSI DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES GALORE

If you aspire to design the next wonder chip, it is worthwhile for you to know about very-large-scale integration (VLSI)a stream of electronics engineering which involves putting millions and billions of transis-tors together logically on a tiny chip. This field involves packing more and more logic devices into smaller and smaller areas. Thanks to VLSI, circuits that would have taken boardful of space can now be fitted into a small space of few millimetres. This has opened av-enues to do things that were not possible before, affirms Nidhi Kathuria, VLSI application engineer at EFY Tech Centera provider of VLSI course training. Factors such as increasing capabil-ity of an integrated circuit (IC) over the years in terms of computation power, utilisation of available area and yield have opened up new frontiers for the VLSI industry to grow. Since VLSI is aniche industry, skillsets in this industry are short in supply and therefore in great demand. Hence there is tremen-dous scope and growth for those who choose VLSI design as a career.

Who should opt for it?

Being a fast-changing technology area, VLSI design is an extremely challeng-ing and creative sector that offers exciting opportunities and fast growth for engineers. An entry-level engineer in IC design should possess a BE or B.Tech degree in electronics and tele communications or computer science There are a variety of career opportunities in product companies, design services companies and electronic design automation (EDA) companies. Product and application domains of VLSI include mobile and consumer electronics, computing, telecommunications and networking, data processing, automotive, healthcare and industrial applications. In simple words, VLSI circuits are everywhere from your computer to your car, your brand new state-of-the-art digital camera, cellphones, and whatever electronics item you have, says Kathuria. Consumer demand for electronic products constitutes about 60 per cent of semiconductor sales today. With consumerisation comes the pressure to lower costs, retain product differentiation, manage volatile cycles and win the time-to-market race. These pressures drive the demand for devel-oping complex system-on-chip (SoC) devices, thereby creating a demand for VLSI skillsets, affirms Vasude-van Aaghoramoorthy, vice president, semiconductor and systems, Wipro Technologies. Today, there is a huge demand in the industry for VLSI designers to develop field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementations, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs and SoCs. The VLSI industry has an added attraction of being a strong domain for patents filing, invention disclosures and applied research, he adds.

Scope of VLSI
According to industry experts, the Indian VLSI industry requires anywhere be-tween 10,000 and 20,000 highly trained engineers at present. According to a joint report of India Semiconductor Association (ISA) and Ernst & Young, the semiconductor design industry in India is expected to log a compound annual growth rate of 17.3 per cent over the next three years to reach $10.6 billion in 2012. There are a variety of career oppor-tunities in product companies, design services companies and electronic design automation (EDA) companies. Product and application domains of VLSI include mobile and consumer electronics, computing, telecommunications and networking, data processing, automotive, healthcare and industrial applications. In simple words, VLSI circuits are everywhere from your

Who should opt for it?

Being a fast-changing technology area, VLSI design is an extremely challenging and creative sector that offers exciting opportunities and fast growth for engineers. An entry-level engineer in IC design should possess a BE or B.Tech degree in electronics and tele communications or computer science along with strong analytical and problemsolving skills, communication skills and the ability to excel in a team environment. Only those electronics engineers who are strong in electronics design fundamentals, and have mathematical and analytical aptitude, coupled with an interest in design and verification, can grow into good VLSI talent, says Aaghoramoorthy. Other than IITs, NITs, IIITs and other engineering colleges which include VLSI design in their engineering curriculum, there are technical training institutes like EFY Tech Center which impart dedicated VLSI training as per the current industry requirements.

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.

What does the industry look for? Opportunities and desired skillset
While recruiting, companies not only look for academic performance but also for the knowledge gained by the candidates at the end of their engineering studies. Deepak D. Agarwal, senior marketing executive, Sandeepani School of Embedded System Design, affirms, Everyday we see a new technology popping up in the market in response to the market demand. Due to this, the gap between the academics (which is more of exam-centric teaching) and the industry (which rides on the quality manpower to address market requirements) has widened over a period of time, as it is practically impossible to keep on changing the engineering syllabus every now and then to meet the industry requirements. He adds, Finishing schools help freshers gain the much needed industry exposure and practice to make them employable. On the other hand, exam-centric teaching and preparation methodology makes the students lose their grip over the knowledge and they just study for getting good grades. Hence many institutes these days are increasingly focusing on the development of well-structured, industrydriven academic programmes that benefit both the students as well as the electronics industry via initiatives such as establishment of incubation centres to help start-up companies. 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-torspecific 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 background of BE/B.Tech, ME/M.Tech or PhD with specialization in electronics, telecommunications, electrical or VLSI domain. Typically, these professionals should have handson experience in systems design, digital ASIC design, physical design, mixed-signal IC design, VHDL or very highspeed inte-grated circuit, VLSI design, circuit design and simulations, microcontrollers, digital PCB design and routing.

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.

The challenges
Going by the projections of high demand and shortage of manpower, it is the right time to enter this industry and get benefits in the future. According to Dr Subbarangaiah,

director, VEDA IIT, Even though around 250,000 engineers are graduating in electronics and other related streams every year, less than 3 per cent of them are equipped with the knowledge and skills needed for the VLSI industry. To add to this, the demand is constantly increasing. There is an acute shortage of skilled engineers, particularly for physical design and analogue design. With the technology advancing at a fast pace, it makes sense to undergo technical training in working with nanotechnology to become industry-ready. The training institute should have access to advanced technology libraries, designs, industrystandard sign-off EDA tools and design flows. There are not many institutes that can train the students in such niche areas in spite of their special manpower development programme. Says Bhagat, We are constantly looking to hire both fresh and experienced talent to meet demand. If academia can help the industry by introducing courses designed to help freshers become productive right from day one in the company, it can help the industry as the employer saves six to nine months, which otherwise are spent on training. It is very important that the industry and academia come together on a platform where they can exchange dialogue and design the right curriculum for the students. Kathuria suggests a way forward: A person who wishes to design ASICs will require extensive training in the field of VLSI design. But we cannot possibly expect that a large number of people would wish to un-dergo such training. Also, the process of training these people will itself entail large investments in terms of time and money. This means there has to be a system that can abstract out all the details of VLSI, and allows the user to think in simple system-level terms.

IBM, Xilinx, Windriver and Texas Instrumentsoffer anywhere between Rs 400,000 and 500,000 per annum to fresh engineering graduates. Other companies having a decent revenue inflowfor example, Coreel Technologies, Moschip, Radel, PACE, eInfochips and Arada Systemsoffer 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 marketfor 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.

PSLV C-22, INDIAS NAVIGATION SYSTEM IRNSS:

On Monday night, the dark sky over Sriharikota turned magnificent bright orange as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C22 (PSLV C-22) roared into the sky. It was a visual treat for those who witnessed the spectacular launch at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre about 90 km north of Chennai. It was the first near midnight satellite launch by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The huge contingent of the newspersons assembled on the terrace of the media centre continuously applauded as the rocket majestically towards the sky at 11.41 p.m.. The rocket was carrying the first of the satellites of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The system will provide terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services and help in disaster and fleet management. It puts India in an elite class of nations having such a system. About 20 minutes after its launch, the rocket precisely injected the satellite into its intended orbit. The satellite system is similar to Russias Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System, US Global Positioning System, European Unions Galileo and Chinas BeiDou satellite navigation system. It can track people or vehicles and can be of immense use in disaster situations like the recent one in Uttarakhand. The Railways may find it useful to track its wagons. The satellite will provide accurate position information service to users in India as well the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary.
PSLV HIGHLY RELIABLE

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 bachelors 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 landmarkfor example, Intel, Tata Elxsi, Synopsys,

Around Rs 1,430 crore was spent on this mission, including setting up nearly 30 ground segment stations, he later told reporters. The PSLV-C22 launched the 1,425 kg IRNSS-1A satellite in to a highly oval shaped sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit that stretches to 284 km on one side of the Earth to 20,650 km on the other.

IRNSS
Developed by India, the IRNSS-1A is the first of seven satellites that will make up the IRNSS. The satellite control was taken over by the Mission Control Facility in Hassan, Karnataka. The facility will manage the satellites orbit raising operations firing the on-board motors till it is placed in the circular geosynchronous orbit. All the seven satellites are identical. The second one is getting ready for launch during 2013-14. The whole system will come into play only when all the seven satellites are up in the space, said Radhakrishnan. The satellite was supposed to be put on the orbit last month. However, the launch was put off due to a problem in one of the electro-hydraulic control actuators in the second stage engine.