RF engineer vs RFIC engineer
how would you differentiate rf and rfic engineers?
i want to explore more from rf going to rfic..
i'm using ads, empire, hfss softwares.
any ideas on what should i do to
upgrade myself into RFIC engineering?
They are totally different jobs. RF engineer is focus on RF, such as electromagnetic, antenna,microstrip.but for RFIC, micro-electronics is necessary.CMOS,transistor,Si,exp.
So, if transfer to RFIC, you should know those knowledge above. ADS,empire,hfss are just tools.
If you are an RF engineer and you design an active microwave circuit, you have tha active device (for example a PHEMT) and you have the S-parameters, noise modells and maybe some large signal modells.
But if you use CMOS technology to design an RF circuit you have to desgin the device sizes (W/L, transistor configuration) and you have to worry about the noises which come from the digital part of the IC. And don't forget CMOS technology is best for digital technique, not for RF, so it is a challenge.
But if somebody has a good feeling about RF technology, than can learn RFIC design, quickly. Just read some books and make some design.
So if you feel the HEMTs, MESFETs and microstrips, you will feel the CMOS technology, as well. I am sure about it.