Archive for category: System-On-A-Chip and ASIC Design Blog

Are you looking to land a job as an analog design engineer? First, it is important to understand the job description and daily tasks of the position. Moreover, you need to have a basic knowledge of analog and digital fundamentals. Successful applicants need to provide solutions to significant problems in their field of expertise.

What is an Analog Design Engineer?

If you are into engineering and want an exciting position working with a fabless manufacturer, analog design engineering may be the position for you. In comparison to other jobs, these engineers have a growth rate of 2% between the years 2018-2028.

This is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thus, the prediction is that by 2028 the number of open analog design engineer opportunities is around 8,000.

In terms of income, the profession averages $102,249 of salary per year. An engineer in this area can also earn from around $79,000 to $130,000 annual salary. Thus, it takes work to become this kind of engineer.

What Education Level Do I Need?

Given the job of an analog design, an engineer requires you to have the appropriate educational background to get hired.

• Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with more than 10 years of experience or Master of Science in Electrical Engineering with more than 8 years of experience in designing ICs at the transistor level.
• Strong analog or mixed-signal IC design with the use of CMOS, BiMOS, or Bipolar technology
• Strong expertise in analog signal processing design using references, amplifiers, switch-cap, active filters, ADCs, DACs, PLLs, and oscillators. Also, he or she must have knowledge of CAD schematic capture and simulation tools.
• Strong communications and interpersonal skills
• Extensive knowledge of device physics and models

About 9% of these engineers are proficient in CMOS, IC, and RF, aside from soft skills such as initiative, interpersonal skills, and speaking skills.

What are the Typical Duties of an Analog Design Engineer?

An analog design engineer is inclined to refine electrical signals across an array of electronic equipment. Part of their job is designing electronic parts and integrated circuitry for analog and mixed-signal electronic equipment. Moreover, they must develop the whole integrated circuit’s lifecycle which starts from specification, circuit design, architecture development, layout supervision and test the launching of a product.

At the same time, this engineer must review vendor capability to support product development and inspect equipment to initiate operating data. Most of all, they must possess strong numerical skills and an understanding of signal processing and systems theory.

Where can I get Hired?

Nowadays, semiconductor companies are often fabless, which indicates that the company doesn’t take part in any fabrication of the product but in the designing and marketing aspects of the semiconductor chips.

That said, you can apply as an analog design engineer at Linear MicroSystems today. In fact, they are offering an exciting and flexible work environment, competitive salary, and generous dental and medical insurance, and extensive career growth opportunities.

Visit the Linear MicroSystems website to find a current job listing for an Analog/Mixed-signal design engineer.

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is a microchip made for a particular application. In contrast to general integrated circuits, ASIC cards allow specific actions to take place inside a specific device.

ASIC is a preferred choice because it’s smaller in comparison to multiple interconnected standard products on a PC board. This variability in size allows the chip to be as large or as small as possible. This has become the trend for the shrinking of electronic equipment sizes in recent years.

What is an ASIC Card?

While the original cost of design can be high, ASICs provide a cost-effective solution. ASIC cards are in products like mobile phones and other popular consumer devices that require large production runs.

Designers can benefit from ASICs for a variety of reasons, which include the following.

• Decrease the size of the device
• Perform specialized functions
• Avoid issues with supply chains
• Make it hard for the competition to emulate products using custom chips

The use of an ASIC card enables the consolidation of multiple functions on a single chip. Thus, ASIC products need fewer electronic components and are also cheaper and easier to assemble.

What is Fabless Manufacturing?

Semiconductor companies require significant contributions in terms of capital, staff, and resources, aside from equipment, infrastructure, and storage facilities to supplement the process of manufacturing.

Thus, they have gone for a fabless model. This is a cost-effective alternative to allow them to share existing facilities of third parties that will perfectly fit their requirements. Fabless companies can focus their time, effort, and resources on developing new ideas. Because of this, they can maintain the variability in production volume, efficiency, and velocity without the pressure on resources and their staff.

Fabless manufacturing of semiconductors benefits a variety of electronics, particularly digital cameras, smartphones, and smart cars. Such companies will design and sell hardware and semiconductor chips but don’t manufacture the chips or silicon wafers they use in their products.

That is because they outsource the fabrication to manufacturing plants or foundries. Such foundries are in countries where skilled labor is abundant and cheap. This is where they keep the production costs low and return on investment high.

Products made by these fabless companies are used in many market-leading corporations today, including top companies like Apple, Dell, and Samsung, just to name a few.

Where to Learn More

Linear MicroSystems is a fabless semiconductor company that offers high-performance RF, analog, and mixed-signal ASICs.  In fact, the company has become a supplier of high-quality and high-volume ASIC solutions, developing the most advanced system-on-a-chip ASIC solutions on the planet.

You can learn more about Linear MicroSystems and ask for a proposal on how the company can help provide the solution for your semiconductor needs. Visit the website talk to experts about analog, digital, and RF analog circuit design solutions.

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

Ultrasound machines play a major role in healthcare in a variety of ways. Traditionally, ultrasounds are display images for prenatal applications and internal medicine. The use of microsystems and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology in the development of innovative medical and healthcare solutions, like ultrasound technology, helps make this possible.

Importance of Ultrasound Technology in Healthcare

Ultrasound waveforms transmit and focus along a vector or beam. The ultrasonic energy reflects from the patient and focuses to form a picture of an object from the signal received.

The moment the beam is collected, the operation will be repeated by the ultrasound imager. Thus, collecting a series of beams that reconstruct into a two-dimensional image.

Aside from prenatal applications and internal medicine, there are newer applications for ultrasound technology which including the following:

Dental Descaling

• The use of ultrasound technology in dental medicine is for periodontal therapy. This is in the form of ultrasound debridement. This application is more effective and efficient than manual debridement.

Shockwave Lithotripsy

• As the name suggests, this process breaks up kidney stones and other calcium-based growths inside the body with the use of ultrasonic waves. This is quite useful to break up the stones that will not pass naturally. In fact, it is an excellent alternative to surgery.

Research also shows that high-resolution focused beams of ultrasonic energy have been used for imaging purposes in non-destructive testing and by the medical profession. This is achievable by pulsing the elements of the ultrasonic array transducer in a predetermined manner.

Role of ASIC technology in the healthcare process

ASIC technology also plays a great role in the healthcare process with implantable medical devices providing therapy for several conditions. Medically integrated circuits are in devices that are programmable to administer drugs on a more effective schedule. This will help in providing effective treatment and relief of patient’s conditions with lesser side effects.

Medical ASIC does several supporting functions for implanted medical devices, which include the following:

• Communications
• Sensing
• Stimulation
• Therapy delivery
• Memory storage
• Microprocessor
• Power management

Microsystems in healthcare help meet the requirements for medical device integration since implantable devices are lightweight, small, and power-efficient.

Thus, all the functionalities are deliverable in a small medical ASIC with a smaller footprint than other solutions. In comparison to ASIC for commercial use, applications for medical devices already have a process maturity less likely to require revisions, offer a robust solution, and provides more quality.

The use of ASICs in healthcare also plays a vital role by combining several functions into one chip. This technology will not be possible because the number of chips required to drive the machinery will be too cumbersome.

Overall, Linear MicroSystems can provide a solution that will further benefit the healthcare industry with the application of modern ASICs and ultrasonic technology. Click here to get in contact with our engineers today.

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

The job of a mixed-signal ASIC product and test engineer can be so rewarding. But it requires certain skills and working knowledge in testing high-speed digital and high-performance analog circuits.

What is mixed-signal ASIC?

Mixed-signal ASIC design is the combination of both analog and digital circuits placed on the same chip. So, this gives engineers the potential to reduce complex, multiple-integrated circuit designs into only a single integrated circuit.

The availability and commercial viability of mixed-signal ASIC makes it possible to gain certain benefits, such as the following.

• Reduction in cost
• Protection of intellectual property
• Improved reliability
• Low power consumption
• Miniaturization
• Improvement in performance

Analog and mixed-signal ASIC designs are both found in products in various segments of the market, from healthcare to cosmetics, industrial sensors to flight control, mobile devices to credit card scanners, as well as instrumentation.

A mixed-signal ASIC combines the competencies of analog and digital circuit design. Building such technology will require the following aspects.

• Analog-to-digital conversion using all methods in sigma-delta modulation
• Circuit design with linear circuits and techniques in switched-capacitor circuits
• Development of tests patterns, test procedures, and test structures for ASICs
• Low-power circuit design
• Mixed-signal ASIC design and modeling

What do product and test engineers do?

The responsibilities of a product and test engineer involve designing and implementing test solutions for analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits.

It is also their job to perform yield analysis, interface with design engineering and customers particularly on the use, testing, and problems in production.

The product test engineer also has duties and responsibilities which include the following.

1. Development of test programs and write test plans for the validation of product performance
2. Do product testing and log test results
3. Analyze and track defects found after product testing
4. Work with product teams for the development of test plans for new products
5. Assist in the development of test protocols in anticipation of product performance
6. Monitor and track status of test defects
7. Determine the timing and cost needed to perform test programs
8. Preparation of failure analysis report and implement corrective actions
9. Recommendation of product design revisions on the basis of test data to achieve expected performance
10. Determine the needs to conduct testing in terms of resources and equipment
11. Development of manual and automated tools in order to increase the effectiveness of tests
12. Development of best practices for the improvement of test quality
13. Review of the technical architecture documents, design documents, and functional requirements to know any potential defects.
14. Maintain accuracy of documents for executed test programs
15. Investigation of test problems and implementation of solutions

Why is a mixed-signal ASIC engineer a good position?

Your job as a mixed-signal ASIC engineer is without a doubt quite rewarding. Aside from the good compensation, the mixed-signal ASIC engineer plays a major role in the lifecycle of a mixed-signal integrated circuit.

In the absence of mixed-signal ASIC technology, there will be the non-existence of portable electronic devices that you can use on a daily basis. After all, can you imagine a world without mobile phones, navigation systems, or MP3 players.

Overall, a mixed-signal ASIC engineer is a key contributor in the development of next-generation instruments with the purpose of cost reduction, efficiency, and low power consumption.

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

For a beginner in processing power and chips, particularly on the topics of PC and gaming consoles and the latest smartphones, it would require a basic understanding of what a system-on-a-chip is.

That is because further topics can involve jargon and abstract-sounding ideas that can be difficult to absorb, so even the most basic questions about SoC can be dense.

What is system-on-a-chip?

System-on-a-chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit (IC) that takes a single platform and integrates the whole electronic or computer system on it. Among the things that SoC looks to incorporate within itself are the central processing unit (CPU), internal memory, and input and output ports.

This can perform a range of functions depending on the type of system being reduced to the size of a chip. It can also perform other functions like signal processing, artificial intelligence, and wireless communication, among others.

SoC integrates all or most components of a computer or electronic system, such as a smartphone, which include the following.

• The central processing unit or CPU is the brains of the SoC
• Graphics processing unit or GPU handles graphics-related processes, including the visualization of the user interface of an app, as well as 2D/3D gaming
• Image processing unit or ISP will convert data from the camera of the phone into video or image files
• Digital signal processor or DSP handles functions that are more mathematically intensive than the CPU
• Neural processing unit or NPU is used in high-end smartphones to enable the acceleration of machine learning tasks
• Video encoder/decoder handles the conversion of video files and format in a power-efficient way
• Modems will convert the wireless signals into data that the smartphone will understand. Such components are 4G, 5G, LTE, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi modems

Different Uses of SOC

• Automotive industry. Take note that a SoC is the single most powerful electrical component you can find in a car. Such new automotive SoCs use different specialized processing units on one chip to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Medical industry. SoC can gather data from an electrocardiogram and execute a heart rate extraction algorithm while only using 2.6uW of power.
• Mobile phones, tablets, or AI. The SoC is the brain of the smartphone handling everything from the mobile operating system. The same goes for tablet mobile devices. This is also expected to enhance the semiconductor segment through AI chips that typically come in a form of a system-on-a-chip.

Educational requirements needed to work with System-on-a-chip

To work with SoC, it is vital to have a master’s degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or physics. That would take more than just five years overall.

However, some employers will accept candidates with only a bachelor’s degree with 3-5 years of work experience in microsystems engineering.

Conclusion

Learning the basics of system-on-a-chip is important if you are looking for a career path in microsystems engineering. Working with SoC requires not only basic knowledge but master’s degree courses in engineering or physics.

With more industries adopting system-on-a-chip, it can revolutionize the semiconductor segment one day, with artificial intelligence leading the way.

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.