Job Market for desktop CPU R & D

[dubious9]

Hello,

I am a physics major because I think that a Ph.D in physics is needed for employment in desktop CPU Research and Development. Could anyone give me an idea of what the employment market is like for R & D for desktop CPUs? Is there a demand for physicists in this market?

I am particularly interested in the upcoming technologies involving the use of graphene for making computer processors. Apparently in the news there is a lot of investment going on in the research and development of graphene based CPUs and electronics. So I am thinking that I'll want a Ph.D in physics if I expect to be employed in such a novel area like graphene nano-electronics.

Thanks.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Best to get a list of chip manufactures and hound them with your credentials. Attend seminars held by/for their researchers; conferences in that subject to make contacts.

You to get inside the HR barrier this way.

 

[Gibsons]

There are a few people around here in that biz. You might want to look into the HT forum.

 

[Rumpltzer]

I work on this stuff.

It depends on what role you want to play in this type of R&D, but physics majors are few and far between (in my experience)... most of the people I know in semicondutor R&D (and I'm focusing on device-level because you're talking graphene... which is nowhere near CPU-level) have PhDs in EE or MatSE. ChemEs tend to be useful on the fab side. I'm not saying there are no physics people; I'm just saying that they're less common in my experience.


You want to get into the IEEE digital library and search for recent publications on graphene devices (there are an assload). It's free to search, but you need to pay to read. Most university libraries have free access to IEEE Xplore. You figure out who the university players are, and you choose a research advisor based on their work.

IEDM (International Electron Devices Meeting) is the big conference, and it was just last month. That's where Intel, TSMC, GloFo, IBM, etc. (all the big players... and the little ones) announce and present their best stuff. The conference proceedings are out, but you can also go to the IEDM 2012 Web site and look at the entire conference program to see who was presenting, what they presented, and their affiliations.


The semiconductor market is hot. If you're good, then it doesn't really matter what the market is like; there's always an opening for someone who is good.

 

[Drako]

I am dubious about the seriousness of this post.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I am dubious about the seriousness of this post.

To be fair, newly registered posters tend to look less suspicious without the black man avatar