Coffee talk with an electronics engineer

Navin Rajaram has worked as a senior design engineer for 4 years in the semiconductor field after completing B.Tech from NIT-W and MS from US. In this interview he shares with us his thoughts on this field.

What are you working on now?

A brief background here .
Graduated with a B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engg from National Institute of Technology(formerly Regional Engg. College), Warangal (NITW) in the period 1997-2001.
Did an M.S. in Electrical Engg. from Clemson University, South Carolina, USA (2001- 2004) and then returned to India post-M.S.
Worked as a design engineer with a startup - Moschip Semiconductors Inc., Hyderabad from 2004 through to Jan 2006.
Moved to Conexant Systems Inc, Hyderabad and worked as a Senior Design Engineer for 2 years till Jan 2008.
 
Why did you decide to take up this career?
When I decided on ECE as a B.Tech course, there were no specific reasons. Both E.C.E and Comp Science were the in-thing then and people were going for either of these courses. I chose E.C.E because I found I was not very keen on computer programming at that time.
As I figured out later, both fields are linked in many ways and knowledge of one often requires a bit of background in the other.

What are the different career options available for someone who aspires to study this course?

You could start with a basic E.C.E degree and then enter various areas. Typically E.C.E graduates get into chip design companies such as Intel, Motorola, Cypress, etc.

Hardware has various sub-areas but broadly speaking - digital and analog domains.
 
Analog domain involves knowledge of analog circuits, operational amplifiers and you could get into design and testing of these circuits.
 
Digital is broader - it involves CAD (computer aided design) of integrated circuits in which there are numerous sub-areas such as front-end design (a bit of coding involved), synthesis (creating circuits out of code) and post-layout (mix of digital and analog). All these are interesting areas in their own right.

What is the potential in India? And abroad?
India is a favoured destination for chip design companies. This is because of the huge talent pool available and the quality of engineers graduating everywhere.  India will continue to see a lot of chip design activity in the coming years.
 
Singapore is another favoured destination. Chip Design market in USA is also good but it is often serviced by companies which have Indian operations. In short, the market is labour intensive in India than abroad.

Which are the best universities for this course as per you? <Pls mention a line or two about ur college/univ for this branch>
For a B.Tech - the NITs, IITs and BITS have always been good. The E.C.E course at NIT, Warangal is good and even encourages M.Tech continuity.
 
For M.S., many US universities offer good specialization areas. Depending on your interests, you could apply to univs like Texas A&M, Univ. of Michigan(Ann Arbour), Iowa State, Clemson University etc. The list is endless.
 
Clemson has a sort of mixed- analog and digital - sort of M.S. course. It is good if you want breadth, but given the time of the course, it is tough to gain depth in any certain area.

What are the advantages of this career? 
Until consumer electronics lives on, chips for applications will keep coming in. In the last decade biomedical processing and areas of manufacturing such as automobile sector also make use of chips.
 
Since knowledge breadth is very high in this area, you could jump domains and gain an overall understanding of how a given chip works.

What are the drawbacks of this career, if any?
Prone to recession like other markets. Scale-down of companies is common in this area during a lossy period. Usually, if you are with market giants, it is possible your company can handle lean periods.

What is the hot thing in this field right now? 
USB, Firewire chips are always hot..wireless telecom, bluetooth, ATM related chips are catching up.

Who is your role model in this field and why?
No one in particular. People like Andy Grove of Intel are inspirational. Most probably you'll find a senior mentor in your company who ends up guiding you and becomes your role model. Until you leave the firm and find a new role model elsewhere!

What is the future of this career 10 years down the line?
Endless, you can specialize in a given area or enhance the scope of your knowledge. 10 yrs down the line - faster and more efficient, less power consuming chips will be in the market. It's always a good time to be in electronics.

What are the kind of specializations available?
Refer to career options qn - same kind of areas.

Which specialization is the most commonly sought after? Also comment on the kind of pay a person gets after that.
None in particular. Pay is decent post B.Tech.. Starting packages of 4-4.5 L per annum are common if you are a fresher from reputed institute.

What are the kind of companies that hire people who take up this course? Give egs.
Intel, Motorola, Samsung, etc..

How much does it cost for the course?
College dependent..NITs are affordable..

Advice to students who want to take up this course
Should interest you and challenge you. It's not an easy area if your aptitude lies elsewhere. But if you find it to your liking, you'll enjoy it a lot.