From Layout into Design career: can it be done?

[Analog_starter]

If you will contact with Analog IC design, layout is a good beginning.

 

[ulcer]

I think I will be the same situation soon. I also want to be an analog IC designer.
I have just been working on analog layout for tow month in my new position. And before this, I was working for another comp on digital layout and testing work for more than one year.
There are many thing I need to learn in analog filed now.

Good luck. I hope we can do that.

 

[jianbinma]

The same situation,I begin my work with doing layout ,but I hope I could be a designer,I think it's more interesting to design than do layout,although layout is very important .Now I do layout and study some fundemental cources at the same time.If you spend time on it ,I think you can step out ,it's all depend on yourself.If you wish ,you can! Try your best!

 

[cetc1525]

i think you can do some work about design of yours,not for company.it just add some practice.

 

[nrf]

Hi guys,
after the replies and a period of "deciding" and concentrating on what to do about my career, I summarized it all as follows:
-if you want to turn into design, it can be done inside your company only if there are a lot of project with many layouters and few designers (very rare case). So it's quite unuseful not in a hidden way, meaning by studying some books by your own initiative, since studying books and then facing with real design problems is different.
-if the company's not in a good project situation, it should be tried to have the change in other companies. But only with the layout experience it will be even impossible, apart from particular cases. This is obviously right, since I defy every layouter to pass a design interview. It sounds like being mason and wanting to learn the architect job.
-With the layout experience you could find an EDA jobs, i.e. in companies developing sw tools for very integrated layout and autorouting, or semiconductor companies which have cad team to customize the cadence environment. So it could result in a sw developer job or in some kind of FAE (but always with the real technical circuitry knowledge very low)
-Another option is changing totally the job environment, by exploiting previous experiences. But this may require deleting all you've done in the past and starting with a pseudo-entry level salary. What's more, you will be obliged to write on your CV few lines about the layout experience and expand old jobs, starting with small lies in order to be selected for interviews and obtain new jobs.

Maybe this analysis could be quite pessimistic but I think that if too much time goes by while doing layout, then you become too specialistic and the change cannot be done anymore.
Opinions about that?
Thanks in advance!

 

[fullflow]

I think you can do it, and try to do some project first!

 

[BigBoss]

Layout designing in especially in Analog and RF is much more complicated rather than expected and supposed.
Simulations?? Peh, they are not very difficult and if you know well what you'e doing, it's quite easy like a puzzle game..( of course you have to have very strong knowledge either on physical and electrical structures of semiconductors, it's by default)
But layout?? It might be very difficult depending on the circuit.
Matching,isolating,ESD,parasitic avoiding,layer selecting, right topology, heating effect, unwanted couplings, radiating perturbations, fluctuating on other components, high current and high sensitivity etc. etc..

Layout is an engineering philosophie.. It's true.

 

[rongli]

I think is difficult.but you have a master,you will be fine.

 

[tlihu]

I think your situation is better than that of switching from logic to analog ic design. right?

 

[cretu]

I think your situation is better than that of switching from logic to analog ic design. right?

Its entirely true. BTW I am probably one of the fortunate ones. Up to now(almost 10 years since graduation) I have done both. My own design and layout. AFter that post layout sims and even lab measurements when the prototypes came back. But I guess that worked for people my age. For anyone it might be a good thing to get one of those sim/layout tools under linux and just work on your own...Otherwise one will end up doing only the design part or only the layout (it's strnge because how can you do layout without knowing the design requirements and vice-versa)

 

[lianming1]

ok, design and layout work for the chip,
so my opinion is you learn all the thing then you can do it.