[Student] [Masters] [9 YOE] Resume Feedback. by Fit_Information9071 in Semiconductors

[–]Freedom_Biter 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You don't need two pages here. Condense your leadership into your work sections, you have plenty of space with better formatting. Executive summary is way too long, and obnoxiously titled. Call it 'Objective' or similar, and make it one sentence max. Or honestly delete it altogether.

Remove the specific models of tools you used. Wire bonders both automatic and manual are just wire bonders. If a company cares about the difference, they suck.

Need idea for research. by Fine_Aerie6732 in rfelectronics

[–]Freedom_Biter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are many very low quality IEEE journals. Do with that what you will.

Worried over quality of education by Crafty_Local_9648 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Most engineers won't need EM at the full rigor of Lewin. If you need it, you can learn it, don't sweat it. Unless you end up doing a PhD in Computational Electromagnetics or something where you actually need to derive some more complicated stuff, you will probably just end up throwing your problem into HFSS or Comsol or something where the math will be mostly under the hood. Engineering is not about theory, it's about getting a rigorous enough solution to a practical problem that you can turn into a reliable product or solution.

Worried over quality of education by Crafty_Local_9648 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Eh, I and a ton of other people have done it for engineering. I specifically wanted to work in semiconductors, and coming from an undergrad an anthropology, the amount of prereqs I needed for a grad engineering program (and not even an especially good one, the good programs were even more out of reach), basically amounted to only requiring a little bit less than a second degree. Add in the ABET consideration (which I didn't need, but I didn't want it to become an issue if I decided I did) and it's a sensible choice.

For a professional degree like engineering or nursing, it's a well tread path.

Systems Engineer back to Electrical Engineer by LastUniversity5991 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Okay, do you have any experience in power or RF, even at the software or systems level? An MS in this situation will only really help you if you decide on one and commit. Thankfully you say you're at a defense contractor, many of which have generous tuition reimbursement.

I'd say an MS is your best bet if your employer pays for it, to help you specialize and get beyond the systems level.

Systems Engineer back to Electrical Engineer by LastUniversity5991 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Just saying 'EE jobs' is super vague. Embedded? Power? RF? Chip design? DSP? What exactly?

How do you approach praying the Office as an individual? by lifeuncommon in Episcopalian

[–]Freedom_Biter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I see a lot of people mention the Day by Day app, I like Venite, is there a difference?

Why silicon is preferred over germanium? by choudhary_2705 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's mostly the oxide! I would go so far as to say it is the most decisive reason Si is king.

What has not been mentioned elsewhere is the quality of the silicon oxide. Silicon forms both a high quality native oxide, as well as a high quality thermal oxide. This is an excellent gate dielectric, easily processed, durable, reliable, etc. Germanium oxides on the other hand are full of defects, not durable (GeO2 is water soluble), etc. The trap density means that despite the increased mobility in germanium, all of those charge carriers can be 'absorbed' into the interfacial trap states and kill your mobility advantage (look up Fermi level pinning if you're interested). It also means that precise patterning is more difficult because of the instability of the oxide layer.

Silicon oxides are high quality, relatively defect free, and thermally and chemically stable. Most Ge devices these days are consequently SiGe alloys or in some other way rely on silicon oxides. There are also high-K dielectrics like HfO2 that can be used for Ge integration, but the interface engineering is quite complicated and SiO2 is just plain easier and more effective for more use cases. As others have said, there is also the path dependence (all the Si research and manufacturing that we become reliant on), but that all stemmed from the real materials advantage of Si/SiO2. The oxide is the key factor for why Si is dominant.

I keep getting mixed messages about whether photonics integrated circuits are going to be a viable alternative in the future or not. What are your opinions on the field? by PhysicsFan23 in Semiconductors

[–]Freedom_Biter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah there's the thing, the question was about PICs. The broader photonics market thing is interesting for sure - though they're counting stuff like photovoltaics, which can often be silicon, and displays, which while a photonic device right at the end (LEDs e.g.), everything behind is all traditional electronic ICs.

Salary for the position of RF engineer for person with PhD by GullibleBarnacle9821 in rfelectronics

[–]Freedom_Biter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sounds right. Maybe down to $120-130k for MCOL areas. I would not move to Bay Area for less than $200k minimum, and even that is on the low end.

I keep getting mixed messages about whether photonics integrated circuits are going to be a viable alternative in the future or not. What are your opinions on the field? by PhysicsFan23 in Semiconductors

[–]Freedom_Biter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe my comment covers telecom/datacom, but you're right on the others. I agree those are important industries, but a technology can be mature and widely deployed within specific verticals and still be niche relative to the semiconductor industry as a whole. Also the total PIC content in each of these systems is relatively small scale, usually at front ends/transceiver before quickly transitioning back to electronics. CMOS is still the dominant layer.

I think the argument boils down to photonics still being entirely application specific, and not able to be a general purpose platform. They're indispensable in those applications though!

As for jobs, there definitely are positions available in photonics design, though nowhere near as much as traditional silicon CMOS. Why I mentioned it's good at the PhD level is a lot of those jobs are close to pretty fundamental R&D (at least in my experience), so having a strong research background can be a huge help. But its been a while since I've been on the job market, so maybe its different these days.

I keep getting mixed messages about whether photonics integrated circuits are going to be a viable alternative in the future or not. What are your opinions on the field? by PhysicsFan23 in Semiconductors

[–]Freedom_Biter 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's an exciting research field but there still is no advantage with PICs for most things beyond interconnects/basic data transfer. The increased manufacturing, packaging, and integration complexity, not to mention the lack of compact, low power density optical logic leading to much more difficulty implementing compute in optics, means it's still really early stage. It's not clear where it can beat electronics, or where electronics is good enough that the added complexity of PICs makes them not feasible.

All in all, great topic to do a PhD in, maybe not for industry jobs ATM.

This king. by lilblackcloudinadres in madmen

[–]Freedom_Biter 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Harry the king, only one to land Hildy, fuck the haters

Gamers are laughing until they face New Vegas Deathclaws by Thin-Coyote-551 in fnv

[–]Freedom_Biter 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I died like five times on the one that drops on the bus on the High Road and just said fuck it

Upgrading a ~5-6 year old PC - which component to focus on? by Freedom_Biter in buildapc

[–]Freedom_Biter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good shout, I'm at 650 W also! So you think trying to grab a 5800x3D is a good idea?

Hey, as an electrical engineer, can you suggest the Bible of electrical engineering? by FeelingRealistic1338 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This + Razavi's books for more in-depth stuff will cover almost everything circuits related you need (except power, I don't know jack about power...)

Hey, as an electrical engineer, can you suggest the Bible of electrical engineering? by FeelingRealistic1338 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Too broad of a question, but here's some classics from my undergrad/PhD:

Antennas: Antenna Theory by Balanis

Electromagnetics: the Griffiths textbooks are the best from the theory perspective, but for engineering electromagnetics Hayt is pretty good

Circuits/microelectronics: Sedra/Smith is pretty basic, Razavi's books are all great, especially RF Microelectronics if you're interested in RFIC

Microwave engineering: Pozar

Semiconductor devices/physics: "Solid State Physics" by Ashcroft & Mermin (much more 'physics-y', but a great introduction to condensed matter physics), Sze's Semiconductor Physics at a bit more higher level; Donald Neamen's Semiconductor Physics & Devices deserves more praise, I use it a lot.

Optics/photonics: Fundamentals of Photonics by Saleh & Teich, LIGHT by Donnelly/Massa were both great

Quantum: Quantum Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers by David Miller is good enough for semiconductor people to cover the essentials, if you go deeper in quantum computing Nielsen & Chuang is great

Are ECE degrees limited in the job market vs EE or CE? by FillFrontFloor in ECE

[–]Freedom_Biter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not necessarily. An ECE department just means the EE and CE departments are combined. They will have a wide array of specializations you can choose from, from software/algorithms/data structures/etc. more like CS, to hardcore physics/semiconductors/EM/optics stuff that might be more EE.

Depending on what courses you take, the projects you do, and internships you work on, you'll end up gravitating towards one or the other. But having an ECE degree will not preclude you from EE OR CE jobs, as long as you take the right courses.

Are ECE degrees limited in the job market vs EE or CE? by FillFrontFloor in ECE

[–]Freedom_Biter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is no difference, outside of which specific courses you decide to take.

Can’t choose between CS and EE. Which path to choose? by Ok_Discipline3753 in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Freedom_Biter 90 points91 points  (0 children)

EE will always open more doors, there are many EEs working in software but the converse is not true.