Many schools open microchip design majors

This year is the first time that Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam - Korea University of Information Technology and Communications, Danang University of Technology, Can Tho University, Saigon International University (SIU), Phenikaa, FPT enroll students in the majors of microchip design, microelectronics - microchip design.

In addition, Hanoi University of Science and Technology announced the opening of a major in semiconductor microchip technology.

In particular, the Vietnam - Korea University of Information Technology and Communications attracts candidates to register for this major with scholarships of 50-100% of tuition fees in the first year. The condition is that candidates achieve 24 points or higher on the graduation exam, according to the admission combination.

Late last year, three member schools of Ho Chi Minh City National University, namely Polytechnic, Information Technology and Natural Sciences, were also approved to open majors in microchip design and semiconductor technology.

Although it is a new program, in many schools, the content of microchip and semiconductor design has been included in fields such as electronics - telecommunications, computer engineering, and engineering physics for many years.

Schools believe that 2024 is the right time to separate this program into a major, moving towards establishing a separate major, in order to "catch" signals from the market's thirst for human resources and Vietnam's semiconductor industry development policy.

Currently, more than 50 microchip companies operate in Vietnam, typically Intel, Marvel, Synopsys, Ampe Computing (USA), Renesas (Japan), BridgeTek and Faraday Vietnam (Taiwan).

According to the National Science and Technology Information Portal, by the end of 2022, Vietnam will have about 5,000 engineers working in the field of microchip design, concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City (74%), Hanoi (10%), and Da Nang (8%).

This number only meets 20% of human resource needs, Vietnam needs 50,000 more highly skilled workers from now until 2030. The Vietnamese microchip community said that the average after-tax salary in the first year of work for a chip design engineer is nearly 220 million VND, gradually increasing. With 5 years of experience, a person doing this job earns over 330 million VND a year. This number gradually increases to over 800 and 1.3 billion VND if they have 15-20 years of experience.

Opening a separate microchip design training major, according to schools, has also been carefully prepared.

At Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, the team of 200 lecturers from the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics, Computer Science and Engineering, and Materials Technology have been building programs and teaching about microchips for decades. Most of them have PhDs from countries with advanced semiconductor microchip industries such as: the US, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, and Korea.

In addition, the school invests in a system of advanced, specialized laboratories serving the design and testing of semiconductor microcircuits such as: Microcircuit and High Frequency Systems Laboratory, Digital Microcircuit Design, Ultra High Frequency and Antenna Engineering, Computer Engineering, HCMUT-Renesas SuperH Lab, Advanced Computing, Energy Materials and Applications, Metal-Alloy Materials.

Vietnam - Korea University of Information and Communications Technology has also focused on the microchip design major since 3 years ago, according to Dr. Tran The Son, Vice Principal. The school is supported by the Korean government in training programs, fostering lecturers and software. In the coming time, lecturers in related fields (electrical - electronic, computer engineering) will go to Korea for training, specialized training in microchip and semiconductor design, creating a long-term source of lecturers to expand training in this field.

In addition, schools take advantage of support from businesses. For example, at the University of Science and Technology, Danang University, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Hai, Vice Rector of the school, said that from 2022, the school will be sponsored by Renesas (Japan) and Cadence (USA) for copyrighted software specialized in microchip design. Meanwhile, Keysight (USA) will sponsor the school with modern electronic measurement equipment for the laboratory.

In parallel, the training program for microchip design is updated, depending on the school. Also at Danang Polytechnic, the school adds knowledge related to very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI), analog and mixed microchips, physical design, packaging and testing, system on chip (SoC), from the foundation of the electronics and telecommunications engineering industry.

Universities have not yet announced specific enrollment targets.