vlsi industry - digital design engineers - draft version

VLSI IndustryWhy to be a

Digital Design Engineer !

Mahmoud AbdellatifApril 2016

Agenda

-What is VLSI ?-Why we should Care ?-VLSI Designers-VLSI Career in Egypt-How to be a Digital Designer-How to Start !

What is VLSI !Think of all the devices you use in your daily life

Mobile PhoneComputer TVCarWashing MachineRefrigeratorOvensCredit Card or a Debit Card.

One Common Thing One or more semiconductor chips >> Integrated Circuits (IC)

IC comprises of millions of transistors on a small piece (10 mm x 10 mm) of a Doped Silicon

What is VLSI !We can now fabricate millions of transistors in a unit square inch piece of silicon

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI). To facilitate this complex design and fabrication of an ICVarious Automatic Tools and machines are available.

Design and verification of an IC is done with the aid of tools

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software tools.

From Chips on PCB to SoCs

1971 : Intel 4004

Gordon Moore

VLSI Design Styles Full Custom Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Programmable Logic (PLD, FPGA) System-on-a-Chip (SoC)

Full Custom Design

• Each circuit element carefully “handcrafted”

• Huge design effort• High Performance• Typically used for high-

volume applications

• Example : AND Gate IC

Application Specific Integrated Circuits(ASIC)

Design for special application

Processors are kind of ASICs

Field Programmable Logic Array(FPGA)

Pre-manufactured components with programmable interconnect

CAD tools greatly reduce design effort

Lower Performance

System-on-chip (SOC)

Combine several large blocks Predesigned custom cores

(e.g., microcontroller) - “intellectual property” (IP)

ASIC logic for special-purpose hardware

Programmable Logic (PLD, FPGA)

Analog

Silicon Valley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r44RKWyfcFw

Agenda

-What is VLSI ?-Why we should Care ?-VLSI Designers -VLSI Career in Egypt-How to be a Digital Designer-How to Start !

Applications• Daily Life Applications

– Smart Phones– Processors

• CPU, DSP, Controllers– Computers

Commercial Electronics– Medicine

– Memory chips• RAM, ROM, EEPROM

– Analog• Mobile communication,

audio/video processing– Programmable

• PLA, FPGA– Embedded systems

• Used in cars, factories• Network cards

– System-on-chip (SoC)

Why we should Care ?

Why we should Care ?

`2015 Acquisition

$66B

$40B

$37B

$17B

VLSI Industry Worldwide

Agenda

-What is VLSI ?-Why we should Care ?-VLSI Designers -VLSI Career in Egypt-How to be a Digital Designer-How to Start !

VLSI Design Example

Types of VLSI Designers

There are various engineers required at each step of design

VLSI industry main technical fields1. EDA 2. Semiconductor Research3. Design 4. Manufacturing 

EDA

Development Developing EDA tools which will be used for designing chipsCompanies like Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys are major

players in this domainFor People who have strong skills in C, C++, data structure and

algorithms Methodology Development How to use tool and what options in tools are best suited for designer

are fixed by these engineersNeeds high Scripting capabilities

EDA

Application EngineerWorks with designers on implementing chip, They help

designer in better understanding of toolsWork with development team on implementing new

features and communicate problems reported in field to development side

Field Application engineer often travels to customer location to work with them

Product EngineerResponsible for entire productWork with development on creating a solution for common

problems. Tool Testers or Validation EngineersMakes sure that each tool comes out of EDA industry is

tested well enough

Semiconductor Research Developing next generation technology node They mainly deal with fab and runs simulations an

manufacturing processes

Design

Logic DesignerDesigning logic in VHDL, Verilog or any other

languageResponsible for desiging digital parts of ASICs, FPGA

desigPerform logic synthesis (Converting to hardware)  Physical DesignStarts from Synthesis, Placement, Routing, Post

Routing optimization, Extraction, PDV (Physical Design Verification) Checks

Many sub domains Analog Design Mixed signal designDigital design implementationSRAM or memory cell development.

Design

VerificationVerification Engineer provides pseudo inputs and

trigger to verify functionality of design, (Remember they don't care about frequency here frequency is going to meet or not is job of Physical Design Engineers) Vera, OVM, VHDL, Verilog languages are used in this domain, IP verification is another area demand these days. 

Manufacturing

Working on developing masks, and manufacturing chips, Integrating and packaging chipm Building system, PCB and Boards 

Agenda

-What is VLSI ?-Why we should Care ?-VLSI Designers-VLSI Industry in Egypt-How to be a Digital Designer-How to Start !

Check This Linkhttp://www.vlsiacademy.org/vlsi-companies-in-egypt.htmlwww.vlsiacademy.org/vlsi-companies-in-egypt.html

VLSI Industry in Egypt

www.wamda.com/memakersge/2015/11/sun-rises-on-egyptian-silicon-alley

www.neospectra.com

We Have Real Products !

Photo source Neospectra product website

Synopsys Acquires Blutooth Smart IP from Silicon Vision

+10,000 are interested in VLSI in Egyptwww.facebook.com/groups/VLSIEgy/

Courses

Digital Library

Discussions

Open Positions, Internships,

Scholarships, Projects

Communications Digital Hardware Electromagnetics & Networks

Computer Software Electronics Design Optics

Control Systems Signal Processing Semiconductor Devices

www.ee.psu.edu/Undergraduate/SpecializationAreas.aspxWha

t do

you

Stu

dy …

……

……

.

Electronics and Communication Engineers Career in Egypt

Communication | NetworkAnalog ElectronicsOpticsElectromagneticDevicesEmbedded SoftwareDigital Electronics| DSP

then,• Opportunities to work, study, in Egypt / Abroad ?• I am not from Cairo University or Ain Shams University !

can I join this field ?

• What about your first Interview/Salary/Project ?

Agenda

-What is VLSI ?-Why we should Care ?-VLSI Designers -VLSI Career in Egypt-How to be a Digital Designer-How to Start !

Digital Design Engineer

Digital Design

VLSI Digital Design

FPGA Digital

Engineer

Verification Engineer

DSP Engineer

System Engineer

**Embeeded

Software

Agenda

-What is VLSI ?-Why we should Care ?-VLSI Designers-VLSI Career in Egypt-How to be a Digital Designer-How to Start !

How to start ?Study Courses

Digital CommunicationDigital Signal ProcessingDigital IC DesignVHDL or Verilog

How to start ?Self Study/Projects

FPGA Prototyping by VHDL Examples: Xilinx Spartan-3 Version

www.fpga4fun.comvhdlguru.blogspot.com.egwww.asic-world.comwww.coursera.org/course/vlsicad

www.slideshare.net/StartGroup/presentations

Questions !

+2012-2-450-4158

mahmoud.abdellatif.2011@gmail.com

eg.linkedin.com/in/mahmoudabdellatif

www.facebook.com/mabdellatif11

Mahmoud AbdellatifVLSI Design Engineer

thanksFeel free to ask me anytime