IC Test Engineer? is it a good career path?

[vcsel_driver]

ic test engineer

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?

 

[Mazz]

+analogue engineer career

It is not the "main" way to start a career, generally all service functions are considered differently from design (staying in the technical field).
But it depends on many factors:

- any better possibility ?
- ask directly what can be a career path; becoming an application eng. can be a good chance.
- does it satisify your expectations?

I hope it can help.
Mazz

 

[mickey_melomane]

i.t a good career path?

Ic Testing is a new field thats emerged offlate... A new approach is the onchip testing of ICs, like BIST (Built-in self test)... Its another valuable option for sure...

Added after 2 minutes:

Infact the latest in this field is the testing of Analog ICs... Digital ICs can be tested using a test sequence that is routed in and received and validated for correct performance... such is not possible in case of analog ICS... Imagine testing the frequency of a local oscillator or the amount of LO leakage in Mixers and many more... On chip testing is the latest development... U can go for it...

 

[nathan80]

ic test engineer jobs

i also started of as an IC test engineer doing design verification (for analogue IC). i am still not sure whether it was the best decision ; but i feel i gained a lot of knowledge and skills from there.

in my country malaysia, there are very few IC design houses; so i found it very difficult to jump after sometime.

learning curve was limited after you learn about all different products in your company;
anyhow, from IC testing , i self learned many new skills such as:
- high speed PCB design ; PCB layout,
- you will have introduction to layout and design work (because you will be closely working with them)
( i choosed my post grad thesis project myself - RFIC (VCO design using ADS) ;

the skills gained and the exposure in this field will help you to choose the field of your choice... this is my personnel opinion...

however, i am not very sure whether this field has a good prospect by itself.....

 

[vcsel_driver]

analog ic tester project

well, any other ic test engineer besides nathan80?

untill now none of you guys actually said that this career path is great or challenging. you guys are suggesting for me to see if I can branch out into other career paths in the future.

well please give more feedback? any countries in particular that might require my skills in the future?

 

[acbalbason]

how to check good ic

hi!

where are you from vcsel? i'm a grad student right now in taiwan and there are a lot of design houses here. one is novatek. number 2 in taiwan. no. 6 fabless design company in the world. you can check them out. they design SoC's, LCD drivers, etc. maybe they have a place for you. they mainly do design and layout, that can be a career path for you. starting as an ic test engineer gives you a good background. also there is a field called design for testability. since you are a test engineer you would know what designs pass the standards or not. i can suggest you move towards the design career. that is more challenging! especially analog ic design. ic test is a good start but try not to stay in there. Ü

 

[vcsel_driver]

rf ic design career path

i am from singapore. well there are a number of design houses here as well. we have analogue IC design as well as RF IC.

 

[sparso]

test engineer career path

Trust me - This is coming from a test guy ... get out when you can.
Test engineering is a thankless job. You spend countless hours debugging
the designer's mistakes then another countless hours convincing him of his crappy
design and you get paid 20 -30 % less that the design engineer. Go to design/applications if you get a chance.

 

[acbalbason]

pcb design is it a good career

hi!

yup quite sad but true! usually they just outsource their testing jobs to other companies or countries. design is the way to go. Ü

- al

 

[STOIKOV]

edaboard criticisms

what is a fact is that testing is part of the design flow and also an important activity: imagine an issue is not caught while debuging, it would mean lost of thousands of dollars if the chip is released to the market.

 

[chiguoquan]

best ic design company to begin career

I am also puzzled by the question,a job chance to working in the testing and development department in Freescale Semi or a Mix-signal design engineer in some design house?

 

[ycj]

is ic a good career

Trust me - This is coming from a test guy ... get out when you can.
Test engineering is a thankless job. You spend countless hours debugging
the designer's mistakes then another countless hours convincing him of his crappy
design and you get paid 20 -30 % less that the design engineer. Go to design/applications if you get a chance.

I cannot agree more.

 

[neo79]

what is a good career for me test

test engineer can be replaced easily, the only future you have is to become a manager which depends on luck.

 

[edacrack]

design a career test

test engineer can be replaced easily, the only future you have is to become a manager which depends on luck.

Not really. Only lousy test engineer will be replaced. Good one always in demand

 

[laglead]

career path ic designer

What do you do is DFT? It is a good job.

 

[transbrother]

what career would i be good at test

Trust me - This is coming from a test guy ... get out when you can.
Test engineering is a thankless job. You spend countless hours debugging
the designer's mistakes then another countless hours convincing him of his crappy
design and you get paid 20 -30 % less that the design engineer. Go to design/applications if you get a chance.

I cannot agree more.

I actually do not know which company you work for. But my experience has been a little different. Before even the part goes to a test engineer for him/her to write his/her code on the tester, it has to be verified/evaluated by the designer that the part meets the spec over temp, and all other conditions specified in the datasheet. It is true that problems are encountered and caught when testing parts (which is why there is a test engineer catching those problems). If you as test enginner are having problems and you think it is the design of the part; and if you think there is a "mistake" in the design there can be only two scenarios: 1. The design sux or, 2. There is no problem in the design. Either way, I think the test and the designer have to be open minded about the problem and approach it; and this is a person-dependent situation rather than a job duty. That is, the designer job description doesnt ask him to be defensive and not accept criticisms. At the same time, the test engineer's job description doesnt tell him to accept all designs as crappy.

I would not say test engineering is a thankless job. It totally depends on the company. In the companies that I have worked for, which are fairly famous for supplying analog ICs, the main creative, technical, and value added areas are design, test, and applications. Again, this is just my opinion.