Sample interview topics

Basic EE

• Basic circuit analysis

• Kirchov’s laws, Thevenin and Norton equivalents
• IV characteristics of circuit elements (R, L, C, diodes, etc.)
• Transient response of basic circuits, RC delays
• Intuitive operation of PN junctions and MOSFETs
• Circuits with opamps
• Transmission lines
• Power dissipation

VLSI

• CMOS gates, complex gates, Latch and FF design

• Logic families (fully complementary, pseudonmos, CVSL, pass transistor, domino)
• Regions of operation of a MOSFET, IV characteristics in different regions, transistor IV curves
• Transistor cross-sections
• Charge storage/sharing and how it impacts certain circuits
• Capacitive coupling
• Dynamic logic
• Sources of capacitive load, capacitances between terminals of a MOSFET
• Various kinds of inverters, switching delay, gain, wire delays
• Transistor sizing and ordering
• Threshold drops, ratioing, leakage, carrier injection, noise
• SRAM, DRAM, Flash memory basics
• Synchronous memory
• Low voltage, differential I/O standards

Logic / Architecture
• Boolean logic Minimization
• State machine design
• Synchronous circuit timing, races, testability
• Pipelines and hazards
• Processor block diagrams, Cache architecture
• Microarchitecture techniques