Analog and Digital Design

[analayout]

hi
i think analog is best why means
The real world is Analog
regards
analayout

 

[piao]

analog need more experience for design while digital has more fancy tools help your design.

if digital design work at high speed, it shoud also be taken as the analog.

 

[tony_taoyh]

Currently, I am an mixed signal ic designer.
In previous 4.5 years, I did pure digital design: from front end to back-end.
Now, I started to design some analog design. My area is delta sigma ADC.

I have friends working as digital ic designer, also some working as analog ic designers.

What I found is:
1) There is one huge gap in analog design and digital design.
2) What the analog designers can do, is block design.
3) What the digital designers can do, is the system design.

For one mixed signal chip,
1) What make it more valuable, are those analog features;
2) What make it more success, are those system design.

So, both are important, I think.

 

[122013137]

Agree with tony_taoyh

 

[rfsystem]

I did not agree with tony_taoyh!

A designer should understand all relevant domains to get a product within aceptable time and cost out of the fab/test. That is what counts

You being an engineer to make products. A user does care about the actual sharing of analog versus digital implementation of a user function

You must understand in which process which system part is more effective (design time, layout area, power consumptation) to do in analog/digital.

If you restrict yourselve in only one domain you will be less useful for a company as product making engineer.

 

[trman]

analog design is very interesting~~

but ... if you want to promote quickily in your carrer life,

analog is not a good choice.

because in most IC design house, digital depart make the decision,

because they response for whole chip.

analog is just the assistant depart, and response small part of the chip

maybe after 10years

your digital depart colleague will be a manager

but you are still a senior engineer.

and digital depart is easy to transfer to be a PM, they know whole chip system

but analog is not easy to transfer a PM

 

[n1cm0c]

This is true... Chips today are digital, with some critical analog blocks and mixed signal blocks at the edges.

The analog designer is the "artist" , the digital designer is the "system manager" who decides what goes in/out of the chip, moves blocks, adds functionality, discusses features with marketing...

Digital rises to product manager, analog settles to senior designer.

It's possible to know both analog and digital, but in my opinion not to the same level on both... To be very good in analog RF and at the same time know very well how to design high efficiency switch-mode power supply is already rare...

 

[vcsel_driver]

guys, i have just started as a test engineer in a analogue IC design house.

my job will be just to perform design verifications for the designers. do you think this field has a prospect?

 

[name_windy]

I think both of them is good. But most important is which one you are interested in.

 

[mickey_melomane]

Go in for mixed signal IC design... Its got a bright future... the integration of analog and digital is an unavoidable situation and comes with a sack of problems, starting from noise, which has a number of job opportunities too... as someone said, "If noise weren't there, there would not have been any jobs"

 

[acbalbason]

hi!

i'd go for analog. not beacuse i already am into analog design. analog circuits are all custom made. you have no standard cells. so previous projects won't replace you, you are always needed. tools no matter how advanced they become cannot replace analog ic engineers. of course purely analog is not recommended. you have to know the digital also. most of the time your circuit has to be interfaced with a digital one. go for mix! i'm going there myself!

- al

 

[eternal_nan]

Hi,

It is purely a matter of what you enjoy better. I would go as far as saying that having decent skills is quite important if you want to be a really good IC designer. I have had a fair amount exposure to both in some of the worlds biggest companies and here is what I found:

- Analog designers that are versed in digital flows are a lot quicker and better at mixed signal type work which constitutes 99.99% of analog work out there.
- Digital designers with analog skills are far more valuable than those without, every modern serious digital design uses several PLLs, DLLs, CDRs, complex differential IOs, etc and most bugs in chips I have worked on are due to digital designers not knowing whats in black boxes they use.

So I guess my opinion is: do both, whatever you pick don't loose touch with the other one.

 

[ravikiran2122]

hi ..
in my view digital designer worths more bcoz of increasing use of digital devices in systems ....
hope it helps u ...

 

[Yahia Muhammad]

well it's all about your scope of interest
but i would say analog

 

[chocolate85]

depends on u r interest

 

[ravitest]

analog is better area.

 

[laiwenhui]

good topic

 

[alecsander]

Well, i would start by saying that every person that replied here worked in some company which has a unique environment, so a unique way of work.
Some said that digital is best, because is more widely used, but that is true for microprocessors. How about the IC sensors and more other devices which has 80% analog and the rest digital?

In my opinion, some should start with what he knows best, learn as much as possible in the shortest time, become an expert on that domain, analog or digital, become important for the company, and then start learning the other domain, and so become a mixed signal designer.

Hope this helps.

 

[zio_nneo]

Digital is the best area to work. Because digital is the developing field. Presently all the analog system is being converted to digital.

 

[floatice]

Absolutely analog design!!