VLSI Industry

Why to be a
Digital Design Engineer !

Mahmoud Abdellatif
April 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 Phone
Computer
TV
Car
Washing Machine
Refrigerator
Ovens
Credit 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 IC

Various 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`

$40B

$17B

$66B
$37B
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 fields
1. EDA
2. Semiconductor Research
3. Design
4. Manufacturing
EDA

 Development
Developing EDA tools which will be used for designing chips
Companies like Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys are major players in
this domain
For 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 engineers
Needs high Scripting capabilities
EDA

 Application Engineer
Works with designers on implementing chip, They help designer in
better understanding of tools
Work 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 Engineer
Responsible for entire product
Work with development on creating a solution for common
problems.
 Tool Testers or Validation Engineers
Makes 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 Designer
Designing logic in VHDL, Verilog or any other language
Responsible for desiging digital parts of ASICs, FPGA desig
Perform logic synthesis (Converting to hardware)
 Physical Design
Starts from Synthesis, Placement, Routing, Post Routing
optimization, Extraction, PDV (Physical Design
Verification) Checks
Many sub domains
Analog Design Mixed signal design
Digital design implementation
SRAM or memory cell development.
Design

 Verification
Verification 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 !
 VLSI Industry in Egypt

Check This Link

http://www.vlsiacademy.org/vlsi-companies-in-egypt.html
www.vlsiacademy.org/vlsi-companies-in-egypt.html
www.wamda.com/memakersge/2015/11/sun-rises-on-egyptian-silicon-alley
We Have Real Products !

Photo source
Neospectra product website

www.neospectra.com
Synopsys Acquires Blutooth
Smart IP from Silicon Vision
 Courses

Open Positions,
Internships, Digital Library
Scholarships, Projects

Discussions

www.facebook.com/groups/VLSIEgy/

+10,000 are interested in VLSI in Egypt

What do you Study …………….

Communications Digital Hardware Electromagnetics

& Networks

Computer Software Electronics Design Optics

Control Systems Signal Processing Semiconductor Devices

www.ee.psu.edu/Undergraduate/SpecializationAreas.aspx
Electronics and Communication
Engineers Career in Egypt
Communication |
Network
Analog Electronics

Optics

Electromagnetic

Devices

Embedded Software
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
VLSI
Digital
Design

**Embeed FPGA
ed Digital
Software Engineer

Digital
Design
System Verificatio
Engineer n Engineer

DSP
Engineer
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 Communication
Digital Signal Processing
Digital IC Design
VHDL or Verilog
How to start ?
Self Study/Projects

FPGA Prototyping by VHDL Examples: Xilinx

Spartan-3 Version

www.fpga4fun.com
vhdlguru.blogspot.com.eg
www.asic-world.com
www.coursera.org/course/vlsicad

www.slideshare.net/StartGroup/presentations
Questions !
thanks
Feel free to ask me anytime

Mahmoud Abdellatif
VLSI Design Engineer

+2012-2-450-4158

mahmoud.abdellatif.2011@gmail.com

eg.linkedin.com/in/mahmoudabdellatif

www.facebook.com/mabdellatif11