POLL: Best schools on RFICs/MMICs in US & Europe

Hi all!

I'm planning to apply to a graduate program for conducting research on RFICs/MMICs, starting 2009. I would like to do a MSc followed by a PhD in the US or in Europe.

My question is: assuming you have the required school grades, the TOEFL/GRE scores and the money (yeah well, let's just assume this last one), I would like to hear your sincere opinion on what would be your choices for schools:

1. In the US
2. In Germany
3. In any other European country that housing a university with a strong school on the topic of RFICs/MMICs.

I would really appreciate if you could state specific reasons for your choices, other than, for instance, "University W is a Top 10, spends X M$/year on research and has gods like Mr. Y and Mr. Z as lecturers"; i.e., I am looking for the kind of information that you won't get from the USNEWS website rankings, if you know what I mean.

Opinions from current or past insiders on these institutions would just be awesome!

Well, thanks in advance for any suggestions/comments/ideas.

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

Very nice poll!!!

...I also have long wondered about what are really the strengths and weaknesses of the well-known institutions, especially in analog/RF design, and especially with regard to US universities.

I know there is people from all types of universities in the forum, big & small; it would be really nice to hear their opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of their EE schools, or any other particularities they can share from their insider perspectives. I think this information could be very useful for prospective applicants like Spectrallypure or myself.

For instance, I have always wondered things like these (just for the sake of giving some examples):

-What's up with Caltech? This institution is well renowned, yet it doesn't seem to go mad for publications like the other big ones. In some areas it also seems to have acceptance rates much lower than those of bigger institutions like Stanford, Berkeley or MIT. What really goes on there? What's behind this 'exclusivity'?. Finally, what are the highlights of their analog/RF curricula?

-Why is Stanford (or, to a much lower degree, MIT) so reluctant to opening their courseware on analog/RF IC design?. It's so obvious they don't go crazy towards the open courseware initiative-at least not in this area. Why is that? Compare for instance to Berkeley, which has opened a lot of their curricula. Is it just personal preferences of the lecturers? any obscure politics behind these attitudes?

-Why is Berkeley's tuition considerably lower than Stanford's or MIT's? What could justify the big differences among the tuitions for this top-line institutions? On the same token, why are GaTech, UIUC or UT Austin so much (relatively) affordable with respect to the biggest ones? In what real practical differences does the monetary gap translate for the students?

...and the all-time classical:
-Considering *only* academics & research on analog/RF IC design, which one you consider would be the overall best: Berkeley, Stanford or MIT? Why?

Well, I also hope some fellows can throw their shares!

Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Europe

I heard that people in America rank IMEC as the best analog IC research institution in the world

This maybe true,from the number of JSSCC and ISSCC papers in this field they produce every year

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

I guess IMEC might be deserve a whole topic on its own. What exactly is IMEC? A research institute that also oversees PhD works? Does it have a graduate curricula on it own? Are the tuition fees higher than those of European schools? Are their strong in analog or RF design?

I recall to have read once a book on the implementation of VLSI Turbo Decoders, which was written from people there. The contents were very interesting and useful, but the presentation was kind of lousy (lots of typos, misleading citations, wrong derivations) - overall good content but poor quality; I really couldn't get a complete impression of this institution from that experience.

....btw, what does it take to be accepted in an institution like IMEC?

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

IMEC is a research institute, but it does not grant PhD degrees. Most degrees are taken in the KUL-MICAS group (sansen, steyaert, etc).

I think PhDs in Europe are usually *paid*, in the sense that the candidate gets paid to do it. Tuitions are low or do not exist.

Good beer, lousy weather in Belgium.

Have you considered ETH in Zürich ? Good skiing, and there's Q. Huang there.
For design he is one of the big guys, I think.

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

Why is Berkeley's tuition considerably lower than Stanford's or MIT's? What could justify the big differences among the tuitions for this top-line institutions?

Click to expand...

It's publicly funded by the sate of California, whereas the latter are private institutions.

A coworkers daughter is attending MIT. It's going to cost him $160k over 4 years. She got a full scholarship to a well respected public engineering school but choose MIT instead. Is it worth the $160k? I don't think it is, but that's not my business.

Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Europe

In most cases, there is no tuition fee for phd in europe. They are treated as employees.
IMEC recruit people with Msc or higher. I guess most researcher positions are for phds,but designers can be msc.

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

I can share my experience with IMEC.
some time ago one of my colleagues stayed there for one year and we had a cooperation for 802.11 project. Now we are going to work on new project with them.

Guys are well prepared and they have the complete vision of the system on which they are working on. I mean, not only the analog design or the digital one, but also algorithm and sub-system RF.

There is a very large turnover of people coming from everywhere (and this is not very good from my point of view).

They aren't very friendly, but, you know, the weather is cold there

I don't know if they take msc or phd. For sure they work with leading companies (Philips is just in front of their site...) and have large number contacts (& contracts also..) with people that make real working products.
Mazz

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

Oh, you're right, I totally forgot ETH Zurich! It has also been on my mind for a long time (in fact, it's one of the main reasons I enrolled a german course some time ago). I know tuition fees are zero and PhD positions paid in most of Europe ...cost of living in Switzerland seems to be very expensive, though.

...Any further options for analog/RF design in Germany or in the US?

Thanks for any comments!

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

Hi MAzz, are you by any chance Italian? (I know that flag is from there, I was on an 8-month exchange program in Italy, and I really liked it).

If so, could please you give me your advice on the strongest Italian institutions doing analog/RF design? I've seen Universita' di Pavia publishing a lot on CMOS RF, do you know which other institutions work hard on the topic?

Thanks in advance for any clues.

Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Europe

Katholieke Universitat Leuven in Belgium.
In my opinion, the best school on microelectronics..

Of course ETH, EPFL, Technical University of Berlin, Technical University of Helsinki can also be..

European Universities are much more attractive than US equivalents in terms of education level.

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

BigBoss said:

European Universities are much more attractive than US equivalents in terms of education level.

Click to expand...

Hum, very interesting! So the conclusion would then be that (at least from the academic/research point of view) there is really no good reason to go to US institutions, if one can obtain the same level of education (or even better) and, instead expending thousands of $$$, be paid for doing your MSc or PhD? Well that would be just great! actually... too good to be true! Are you sure of what you're saying? ...Because then I don't really get why is everybody crazy about getting their graduate education there!

...Hope someone could comment on these and the other topics posed by Spectrallypure!

Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Europe

that really depends on the which field you are talking about

For digital design, I think USA is better than Europe.But for analog IC design, they are comparable.

Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Europe

spectrallypure

you're right about Pavia. They have strong cooperation with big companies (and recently Marvel opened a design center there). There is also Politecnico di Milano that I can mention.

But consider very carefully what bigboss is saying: Leuven, Helsinky,EPFL eduction level is at top there.
Mazz

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

EPFL is in a nice place, Lausanne, by a lake, mountains close by...

ETH in Zürich is also very good, also a nice lake. Switzerland is clean, organized, and labs are well equipped.

KUL in Leuven does many interesting new things. Cold and humid in winter, wet and stuffy in the summer. next to IMEC.

Helsinki people means Nokia... Long , cold and dark winters. Finnish language is ... unlike most others!

TUB is also ok, Berlin is a large city, very interesting place. They have lakes nearby (but no mountains...). Lead sky winters, no snow, no rain, just gray.

I'd try first CH, then B, then D and/or FIN .

There's interesting work being done at N also, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Added after 19 minutes:

And we are forgetting the *dutch*!!!

TU Delft and Twente... Very good level, NXP next door. Rain all the time, difficult housing.

Also a place to consider... NL/B/D are possibly generally equivalent.

Please let us know what is your choice in the end...

Added after 1 minutes:


rainy and *damn windy* let me add!!! (gggrrrlll)

Re: Best schools for MSc/PhD on RFICs/MMICs in US & Euro

Thanks so much to everybody for your valuable comments on the European universities; it made the panorama there a lot clearer.

On the other hand, I can't believe nobody in the US is willing to comment on the scene there... :?:

...c'mon guys, any comments on your vision of things there for a prospective graduate student on analog/RF IC design would be really appreciated!

In US a PhD studens are considered as slaves, in Europe they are treated as coworkers, also in Europe peope are more socialized, you can check it from GoogleEarth, in Europe houses are close to each other unlike US, this is directly related to socialization level.

I think, equally important side of the issue is you will spent your 3-5 years in the place you choose, that means much more than a degree for me.

I will apply for PhD too, probably next year I will be in Leuven or in Switzerland...

Anything about KTH? They have a master's program on System-on-Chip Design with some RF courses in it.
The same with Imperial (Msc in Analogue and Digital IC Design)

In the U.S., top 10 graduate school in RFIC/MMIC would be

UC Berkeley
UCLA
Stanford
UCSD
Michigan
Caltech
Georgia Tech
University of Washington
UT Austin
Columbia