Title :
What comes after most semiconductor fabs are "outsourced" to Asia? Major challenges in educating future RF/analog IC designers in the U.S
Author_Institution :
Univ. of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Abstract :
What comes after most state-of-the-art semiconductor fabs are moved to Asia? Would this trend fundamentally change the educational needs of students in the U.S. majoring in electrical engineering (E.E.)? This paper lists several major challenges for educating future RF/analog integrated circuit (IC) designers in the U.S in light of this "outsourcing" trend. The outline of a 3-quarter graduate-level RF/analog IC design series (ECE265ABC) that the author has been privileged to teach at UC San Diego (UCSD) is discussed to address some of those specific challenges.
Keywords :
analogue integrated circuits; educational courses; electronic engineering education; integrated circuit design; outsourcing; radiofrequency integrated circuits; IC design education; RFIC design; analog IC design; semiconductor fab outsourcing; student educational needs; Analog integrated circuits; Asia; Bluetooth; Digital integrated circuits; GSM; Job design; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency integrated circuits; System-on-a-chip; Wireless LAN;
Conference_Titel :
Microelectronic Systems Education, 2005. (MSE '05). Proceedings. 2005 IEEE International Conference on
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-2374-9
DOI :
10.1109/MSE.2005.65