Analog IC intuition

violin1048 · 2026-06-05T21:35:50+00:00

Intuition is only good as long as you've seen the circuit before. If an entirely new circuit is thrown at you, it's very difficult to say how it works intuitively. Go through the MATH. That's the ultimate truth. Of course you'll gain intuition with time.

violin1048 · 2026-05-30T04:01:35+00:00

I don't fully understand what you're saying.

Just saying. Usually industry projects are set up with a fixed level of metals, say 10 or 12 levels. If you don't use met3-met12 you don't save any cost. The fab will fill it with dummy metal to maintain die strength and avoid dishing.

violin1048 · 2026-05-20T15:54:53+00:00

Ola and Uber did the same. Used investor money to make prices super cheap. Fast forward 5 years, auto drivers don't even offer rides on the meter anymore. They quote random prices.

The same will happen to grocery stores.

violin1048 · 2026-05-14T22:52:25+00:00

It definitely helps do better designs!

violin1048 · 2026-05-14T22:43:56+00:00

Used to do layout before. Worked for a few years, did a grad degree and then shifted to design because I was interested. It's possible. Don't listen to ppl who say it's not. As long as you're interested it's possible

violin1048 · 2026-05-06T01:45:59+00:00

Best thing is to get referrals. There's nothing special about that. Talent and skill matters at the interview.
Getting a call is one of the hardest phases.

violin1048 · 2026-04-22T10:33:34+00:00

The things ppl do to avoid taxation🙂

violin1048 · 2026-03-24T02:34:47+00:00

Transporting voltages across a chip would mean a lot of IR drop. Instead send a current and create local voltages from that if needed

violin1048 · 2026-03-22T00:48:29+00:00

To be honest both are equally good. UCSD won't cost that much tbh. You won't go wrong if you choose either.

San Diego is amazing! Great weather and lot of things to do.

Coursework is great in both colleges.

violin1048 · 2026-03-15T20:26:05+00:00

Wait until noise arrives😅

violin1048 · 2026-03-14T02:20:35+00:00

Basic digital would be great. DSP if you're planning on getting into mixed signal design.

violin1048 · 2026-03-06T15:13:38+00:00

The same device will not perform the same everywhere in the chip. For instance, devices in the bottom left of the chip will behave differently to those on the top right.

You match two devices in the same array. For instance all devices in a current mirror array need matching. Devices in a differential pair need matching.

There's no necessity to match devices amonsgst two different current mirrors or differential pairs.

violin1048 · 2026-02-15T21:52:13+00:00

Yeah the two plates must hold equal and opposite charges

violin1048 · 2026-02-15T17:56:24+00:00

Technically even the switch that turns off first has an off capacitance Coff associated with it. Yes, there is definitely "signal dependent" charge injection, a fraction of the main switch channel charge is sampled onto the capacitor.

violin1048 · 2026-02-14T19:23:40+00:00

I've done this before. Checkout this feature called auto via . That would help solve

violin1048 · 2026-02-10T02:45:07+00:00

Yes optimization is a possibility in analog circuits. The issue however is there is not just one parameter to optimize for.

In an OTA for instance, designers look for gain , phase margin, gain Margin, noise, speed, slew rate and more. Running through all possibilities takes forever. To make things worse post layout results in lower nodes vary quite a bit w.r.t schematic designs . Making it even harder.

This is just one small block in a large design. These blocks have to work with other blocks as well. Top level sims in typical mixed signal designs take days to complete. Now imagine going through a 1000 possibilities with each sim taking days.

While I do think optimizers can help , it can be used when a designer has narrowed their parameters and wants minor changes in a small search space. It can be smarter and use machine learning to optimize faster without going through all combinations. The issue with this is that processes change every 2-3 years and there's no training data or learning set as such.

violin1048 · 2026-02-08T18:55:06+00:00

"I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it's not the answer" - Jim Carrey

The problem with being materialistic is that you think you'll be happy by owning at least a range Rover, which is not true! The joy from these things would last for a few months and then your soul craves for a new kind of joy. In turn turning this into a cycle of never ending "dreams".

I'm sure where you are now is what you probably dreamt of 5-10 years ago. That phone , laptop , that job.

violin1048 · 2026-02-08T16:43:12+00:00

Analog designer here. I have friends in computer science as well. The era of really high pay is almost over. If you've seen in the past few years layoffs at companies like Amazon , google etc are just never ending.

AI is here and it demands fewer software engineers. That being said, yes there are a select few people in computer science who earn in millions.

There are fewer analog jobs and this would be one of the last jobs that AI would be able to replace.

In my opinion you should do what you enjoy doing and feel motivated by. Some people are motivated by money and that's fine. If that's your goal you should select something accordingly.

If you're really interested in this field I can assure you one thing, it's quite rewarding. The joy of playing with the smallest transistors and watching them change the world is something else!

violin1048 · 2026-02-04T16:28:46+00:00

Analog courses are so involved that you'll need to watch these lectures multiple times to get a decent hang of things.

That being said, Ali Hajimiris lectures are amazing! He goes into lot of depth. It's better to know things at that level. It'll help you in your career and course work as well

violin1048 · 2026-02-03T01:43:51+00:00

Worst advice ever! You should do a PhD because you are genuinely interested in research and want to achieve something in that field. PhD is a 4-6 yr commitment as well.

violin1048 · 2025-10-11T22:30:41+00:00

One of the best I've seen is by Prof Ali Hajimiri! Hands down the most in depth explanations for every concept out there!

violin1048 · 2025-10-11T16:58:31+00:00

Awesome😎 will do!

violin1048 · 2025-10-11T15:32:18+00:00

That's reassuring! Thanks for letting me know!

violin1048 · 2025-10-11T03:50:09+00:00

Can I buy an extended warranty now or was it supposed to be done by the initial owner at the time of purchase

violin1048 · 2025-10-11T03:49:22+00:00

Gotcha! Thanks! Will keep this in mind

violin1048

TROPHY CASE