1. What is most rewarding in your working day?
Being a senior engineer means that I follow all aspects of an ASIC design from initiating the feasibility study to actual design, physical implementation and verification. Each single step is challenging and interesting.
During the feasibility study I have the opportunity to work together with customers evaluate their requirements and find practical solutions for them.
Finding solutions to complex problems and applying new creative ideas is what makes the design very rewarding.
Also, interacting with work colleagues, throwing ideas at each other, sharing knowledge and challenging our views makes it all very exciting.
2. What is most challenging in your working day?
Challenges and rewards go hand in hand. The harder the problems to solve the greater the satisfaction.
Often it takes a lot of careful thinking and analysing to come to the bottom of a problem or finding a solution to a technically challenging specification.
When we are close to the completion of a project, a lot of hard work goes into verifying that all blocks work together as intended and that we have implemented our specifications in full.
3. What was your job role 10 years ago?
ASIC Digital design has been my area of expertise in the last 10-15 years.
Together with the design I have been involved with layout, evaluation and testing.
I have to say that, although my job role has not changed, two days have never been the same!
4. Which gadget is most useful to you in your working day?
Definitely my HDL simulator. This is what makes my ideas and design come to life!
And if it does not come to life, it helps me understand why!
5. How do you relax when not working?
I love Yoga and Pilates. I enjoy walking and shopping.
Spending time with family and friends.
Travelling and exploring new places.
6. Is an ASIC design engineer career varied and rewarding?
Yes it is. At Swindon we design and productise all tpes of custom IC across many markets and applications. The engineer could be working on an IC for tyre pressure monitoring on a car and thee next project could be a chip used in monitoring nuclear power stations.
This article was first published in zmags and can be read here.
