How To Get Ready For VLSI/ Semiconductor Industry??Today, VLSI devices are found everywhere around us. We find VLSI chips in our cell phones, household appliances, cameras, cars, and in even medical devices. This rapidly evolving sector offers many exciting opportunities in verification based jobs for those with strong fundamentals in electronic circuit design and hardware description languages, interest in VLSI design and verification and more importantly, the skill to put know-how of VLSI concepts to practice.

With the advances being made in technologies and product innovations on a daily basis, there is a constant need to design, develop and re-engineer integrated circuits (ICs). Since products like mobile phones are being released with new features in increasingly shorter cycles, there is a healthy demand for qualified very large scale integration (VLSI) engineers to work on these products. Therefore there is good scope for a career in the VLSI industry.

The essence of VLSI is in practical product development, practical mind-set is more important than the theoretical knowledge. Most of Indian universities focuses to give theoretical knowledge to student, instead of core practical and development skills to develop their career. That is the only biggest barrier today in India for students to enter into VLSI field.

There is a huge gap between industry and academia that is why there is difficulty for freshers to crack interview easily.The VLSI field offers exciting growth opportunities for engineers who are strong in electronic design fundamentals, have an interest in VLSI design and verification and know how to apply VLSI concepts to practice.

Now the question that pops up is "HOW TO GET READY FOR VLSI/SEMI-CONDUCTOR INDUSTRY?

Here are the skill sets at a glance

• Strong fundamentals in digital electronics (also referred to as digital logic design/ switching theory and logic design) and digital system design.
• Career prospects can be improved by building skills in digital CMOS IC design.
• Strong fundamentals in circuit design and analysis, digital logic design and analysis, and microcontroller and microprocessors programming.
• Exposure to design using Hardware description languages (such as VHDL and Verilog), functional simulation and synthesis.
• Knowledge of SystemVerilog and UVM will be add-on.
• Proficiency in scripting using Perl/ TCL (tool command language).