Photolitics

Photons Hit Electrons

Recent Pole-Zero Pairs

▨ Not deserted - temporarily stranded

▨ Analog-style digital design observations

▨ The semiconductor industry in Bulgaria Vol. 2

▨ Small-signal and large-signal MOSFET channel resistance

▨ Bricks and mortar of the internet

▨ Harvesting gamma radiation

▨ Dominant gate capacitance of a MOSFET

▨ Mr. Sievert, a fictional character

▨ "This could be a very strong paper"

▨ Major milestone: Oxford thesis submission

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Awhile ago, precisely on August 14th 2017, I blogged on the state of the semiconductor industry in Bulgaria. The somewhat incomplete graphic diagram got surprisingly popular amongst various internet users. Thanks to their feedback I got some additional insight on the state of the industry as a whole. Now, I'd like to share an updated diagram and some extra news.

Here's what I think is a more representative diagram as of today, to the scope of my knowledge.

We can notice some differences with Version 1: firstly, the rumours that ASIC Depot exited through a sale to Broadcom were correct, and secondly, a fresh company has popped on the horizon - Photolitics, yes, that's us. Perhaps the only sole/core/purely bulgarian fabless design house in the country at the moment, also the first one in Northern Bulgaria too. The chart omits Smartcom from the list, as I don't consider them a pure-play design house, but rather a supporting custom design firm. The same applies to the LFoundry PDK team in Bulgaria too, not really pure spec-to-product chip design. Likely the same applies to ASIC Depot, but okay digital VLSI design is often rather scattered nowadays.

As with Photolitics, we are a team of 5 (soon to be six) analog gurus working towards a specific goal and standard product. Stay tuned for more, as I will dedicate a separate news release to us.

Lastly, if you know more on the topic or if you have found some inaccuracies let me know in the comments. It's highly likely that there is some information missing there.

Date:Sun May 05 15:45:52 GMT 2019