What is VLSI Design? Good for Career in 2025?

What thing comes in your mind, when you hear the term “chip design”? Not sure, maybe a chips packet, right?  Well chip designing has nothing to do with chips packet, it’s a very complex field falls under VLSI design domain in which smartest brains design various circuits, processors which are ultimately used in your favorite gadget. Unfortunately, not many people are aware about this field but no worries we’ll evolve into the world of chip designing through this post.

Now a days we are almost surrounded by chips, you name a digital gadget & it would contain some kind of chip in it for its functioning. Television, laptop, Cars, Refrigerator, Mobiles, tablets, wireless devices, health care devices almost everything contains chip. Now you must be thinking why these devices need chip at first place? What if companies do not integrate chips in their devices, then?

Why are Chips needed?

Lets try to understand this question through an example. Now a days there are lot of news coming about autonomous vehicles/ driverless cars. In driverless cars there is one feature deployed by companies that as soon as it sees a car coming closer to it, automatically breaks are pressed and car speed reduces.

Now if you break this problem further you will acknowledge that first of all there would be a requirement of some sensors which can sense speed of car & direction, then there would be a software installed which will take decision about speeding up/decreasing car speed & then there would be a mechanical system installed in car which will operate based on the software decision to accelerate/deaccelerate the car. Now like this there are various monitoring systems are installed in cars which help in navigating through different conditions. To sense & perform various activities specific chips are needed. These chips are designed in such a way it can operate in extreme temperature conditions.

Now since you have developed an understanding about chip requirements. Let’s dive in into the details of chip design now. How chip design process takes place and what skill set an individual should have to make a career in this prestigious field.

Chip Design Process:

As we discussed chips are used now a days almost in every other application based on the different set of requirements. Since most of the chips are designed for specific purpose, it is also known as Application specific Integrated circuit (ASIC) design. Chip design starts by breaking the big problem statement into pieces and then working on their solutions.

Lets say if we consider above example, you need to design a chip for acceleration or deacceleration of an autonomous vehicle. This problem statement can be break into various parts :

• You need a system to measure the relative distance between 2 vehicles.
• There should be a comparison mechanism which can decide whether acceleration has to take place or deacceleration.
• This system should work across wide range of temperature and its should be process independent.

Now as we broke the problem statement into the 3 parts, things are making more sense now and also giving a direction to think. Now if you think carefully you will realize that there would be a requirement of a Comparator, Band gap reference, ADC, ultrasonic sensors, voltage converters and few more analog & digital circuits.

Each of this circuit falls under different groups in big organizations like comparator, band gap reference will fall under PMIC (Power Management Integrated Circuit) group,  ADC will fall under data converter group & so on. Through this you can understand the width of VLSI industry. For each block design mostly there is a dedicated group who design various circuits to meet stringent specifications coming from customers/clients.

Once the blocks are finalized specifications are prepared for that. Lets take an example of band gap reference here. For Band gap specifications can be written in following format:

• Voltage support
• Startup time
• Offset
• Temp support
• Quiescent Current
• Load regulation
• Settling time
• Dropout voltage

Like this specifications are prepared for each block. Now based on the specifications suitable architecture is used which can help in meeting all the specification with better PPA (Power, Performance & Area). Then designer designs the circuit using the EDA (Electronic design automation) tools.

Skill Set Requirements:

Now you are aware about the chip design need & process, it’s important for you to understand what skillsets are needed if you or someone is looking to make a career in this field. There are so many different fields in VLSI (Very large scale integration), chip design is one of them. In order to make a successful career in this field one should atleast have a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication or Electrical Engineering from reputed institute. One should have a good command over subjects mentioned below:

• Analog Electronics
• Digital Electronics
• VLSI Design
• Signals & Systems
• Network Theory
• Control System

These subjects plays crucial role in clearing your VLSI job interviews. If you are not sure about the best books for these subjects, you can check the links for each book. These books are written by well known authors and are highly recommended.

Along with commanding theoretical knowledge try to be hands on with some projects as well. Try to work on some small circuits such as amplifiers, current mirrors, Inverters, Schmitt trigger, 2 stage amplifiers. These projects works will make you more suitable for VLSI job opportunities.

It is very important for an engineering student to plan out what he wants to achieve in each year of engineering. Core subjects are usually taught from 3rd semester in many colleges/universities. So in order to get decent job in big VLSI company one needs to follow a proper roadmap from 2nd year itself. At Mosgyan we have prepared one roadmap for electronics & communication engineering students, go through this roadmap for sure it will make things more clear for you:

4 years Roadmap for an Electronics & Communication Engineering Student

Is VLSI Design a good Career Option in 2025?

Yes, with out even a doubt. Lot of focus is being made on semiconductor enablement in India and even at global scale also. This is the perfect time to be prepared for VLSI job market. Lot of opportunities are around the corner with high pay scale and innovative work. If you are someone whom innovation excites, you want to work on cutting edge technology this field is best option for you.

As a fresher you might still have certain doubts about job opportunities in VLSI domain. Don’t worry watch out this video & we can assure you that many of your questions will have an answer once video will be over.