04/26/2026
👉Potential Interview Tips
1. BASIC ELECTRONICS
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- What is voltage, current, resistance?
- Explain Ohm’s Law
- Passive vs active components
- Linear vs non-linear elements
- What is impedance?
- Difference between AC and DC
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2. CIRCUIT ANALYSIS
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- What is KCL and KVL?
- Node vs mesh analysis
- Superposition theorem
- Thevenin theorem
- Time constant (RC, RL)
- First-order vs second-order circuits
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3. SEMICONDUCTOR PHYSICS
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- What is semiconductor?
- Doping (n-type, p-type)
- Mobility
- Drift vs diffusion current
- PN junction operation
- Depletion region
- Junction capacitance
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4. DIODES
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- Diode I-V characteristics
- Forward vs reverse bias
- Zener diode
- Breakdown (Zener vs avalanche)
- Applications (rectifier, regulator)
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5. MOSFET (CORE AREA)
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- What is MOSFET?
- NMOS vs PMOS
-FinFet
- Regions of operation
- Threshold voltage
- Body effect
- Channel length modulation
- Subthreshold conduction
- Strong vs weak inversion
- What is overdrive voltage?
- Drain current equations (conceptual)
- Why saturation region is used?
- Short channel effects (basic idea)
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6. ANALOG AMPLIFIERS
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- What is amplifier?
- Voltage gain, current gain
- What is Op-Amp?
- Ideal vs non-ideal Op-Amp
- Inverting vs non-inverting
- Input/output impedance
- Slew rate
- Offset voltage
- Noise (basic idea)
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7. DIFFERENTIAL PAIR
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- What is differential pair?
- Differential vs common-mode signal
- Tail current source
- CMRR
- Input common-mode range
- Output swing
- Sources of offset
- Effect of mismatch
- Why differential structure preferred?
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8. CURRENT MIRRORS
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- What is current mirror?
- Simple current mirror
- Cascode current mirror
- Wilson current mirror (optional)
- What is current mismatch?
- Output resistance
- Accuracy limitations
- Temperature effects
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9. CASCODE & GAIN BOOSTING
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- What is cascode?
- Why cascode is used?
- Output resistance improvement
- Gain boosting concept (basic)
- Tradeoff: gain vs headroom
- Wide-swing cascode (basic idea)
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10. ANALOG DESIGN METRICS
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- What is gain?
- What is gm?
- What is ro?
- Gain formula concept
- Bandwidth
- Gain-bandwidth product
- Power vs performance tradeoff
- Noise vs power tradeoff
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11. FREQUENCY RESPONSE
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- What is bandwidth?
- What is pole and zero?
- Dominant pole
- Bode plot (basic idea)
- Unity gain frequency
- Compensation (basic)
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12. FEEDBACK & STABILITY
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- What is feedback?
- Negative vs positive feedback
- Benefits of feedback
- Stability concept
- Phase margin
- Gain margin
- What is oscillation?
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13. ANALOG BUILDING BLOCKS
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- What is OTA?
- What is LDO?
- What is bandgap/reference circuit?
- What is VCO?
- What is PLL (basic)?
- What is ADC/DAC (basic)?
- Current source vs voltage source
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14. VLSI DESIGN FLOW
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- What is VLSI?
- IC design flow steps
- Schematic → Layout → Verification
- Frontend vs backend
- Analog vs digital flow difference
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15. IC LAYOUT (VERY IMPORTANT)
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- What is layout?
- Why layout is critical?
- Matching concept
- Symmetry
- Common centroid
- Interdigitation
- Dummy devices
- Guard ring
- Shielding
- Routing basics
- Device orientation
- What is floorplanning?
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16. PARASITICS
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- What are parasitics?
- Parasitic capacitance types
- Resistance parasitics
- Coupling capacitance
- Effect on speed and gain
- How to reduce parasitics?
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17. PROCESS & TECHNOLOGY
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- What is CMOS technology?
- Node (e.g., 180nm, 65nm)
- Process variations (corner: TT, SS, FF)
- What is PVT variation?
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18. DRC / LVS / EXTRACTION
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- What is DRC?
- What is LVS?
- What is ERC?
- What is parasitic extraction?
- Why post-layout simulation needed?
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19. RELIABILITY & PRACTICAL
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- What is ESD?
- What is latch-up?
- What is electromigration?
- Temperature effects on circuits
- Power consumption issues
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20. HR / MOTIVATION
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- Why this course?
- Why VLSI?
- Why analog over software?
- Career goal?
- Strengths and weaknesses
- Time commitment
- Willingness to work hard?
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21. PRACTICAL THINKING
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- Why matching is important?
- What happens if mismatch increases?
- Why analog layout is difficult?
- Why power matters in IC design?
- Tradeoff between speed, power, area
- What happens if supply voltage reduces?
- Why scaling is challenging?
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22. BONUS (FOR STRONG STUDENTS)
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- What is slew rate limitation?
- What is input-referred offset?
- What is PSRR?
- What is noise margin?
- What is flicker noise?
- What is thermal noise?
- What is dynamic range?