Assalamualaikum, my dearest readers...

I know it's been quite a while since my last entry, so sorry for that, I had been too occupied with all the design works and endless informal meeting with my colleagues over the past one week or so.. I used to write all my blog's entry while I am in the office, utilizing every single minute of my free time... Now all that seems to be a distant memory, for I now am too occupied with the work (quite frankly, it had been lagging behind schedule for 4 working days, )... So from now on, I think, all my entry shall be prepared and written at home, and be published when I am in the office. (there's no Internet connection available at my home, which very much explain why I only responded all the comment during working days, )

For this entry, lets talk about my work, what am I actually doing as a Design Engineer. On official employment basis, I am responsible for the design of fabrication mask of VLSI circuitry. Whoa... What is that U may ask?! Basically, in a very layman term, I am the person who is responsible for the design of chemical implementation of any electronic circuitry . It's like making a cake, the circuit designer is the one who prepare all the ingredients, doing all the measurement and stuff, while I am the one who actually do the mixing, the baking and the presentation of a finish cake. In a systematic working environment, this is what we normally does. Every single person is only responsible for a specific task, and it is their direct responsibility to ensure whatever mistake that could arises is not because of their negligence or human error on their part. So naturally, there is a tremendous amount of pressure on my shoulder to do a great job on the chemical implementation part, since the circuit designers has been very confident that their circuit will work, which means in case there is any unconformity whatsoever on the circuit's behavior, it is totally someone else's fault, most of the time that blame shall be directed to my department, and me... And that is why it is very crucial that my attention and focus shall not be divided from work, anytime during the office hour. A big burden is it?! Well, it is, but that is what makes the life a little bit more challenging than it currently are...

How do I do the chemical implementation, U may ask, since I am not working in a fabrication plant or foundry as we call it?! (in layman term, it is referred to as chemical factory, with people wearing bunny suits is everywhere to be seen, :p) Well, I do it by means of drawing different block of chemical layers, one on top of another, to represent each electronic component. For instance, to realize (means to represent the component in chemical properties) a capacitor, I shall utilize two different layer of metal (normally Aluminium Alloy and Cuprum Alloy...) by drawing two different boxes of different colours which representing the two metal layer, overlapping one another,... Such action will be resulted in a drawing which readily recognizable by the foundry as an instruction to construct a capacitor component. And I do this kind of overlapping boxes drawing for every single component of a circuit, the resistors, transistors, wires,.. everything. The final product will be a two-dimensional drawing of multi-coloured boxes in a map-like perimeter, which technically defines as fabrication mask. It is in this drawing process where all the error might cropped-up. All kind of unthinkable mechanical and chemical related issues should be considered beforehand and appropriate measures been taken to eliminate them. Because technical drawing such as this is very much an art as it is technical, I need to find a perfect balance in all my drawing, where all the important aspect of electronic engineering is taken care of while the beauty and the art of drawing is preserved. Difficult task, I know... That's why I love my job... The challenge, the artistry, the burden,...

I do my work on Linux workstation which is not connected to the Net (for security purposes, obviously), so I had to migrate to another Net-connected, Windows Based PC just to check out on incoming emails and do any bloghopping activities. So it is pretty self-explaining why I had not been quite active in dropping my two-cents-worth on every topic written by all my favourite bloggers out there as I normally does ,... I do drop by their page once in a while to read their writings, their thoughts and everything, but it is almost impossible for me give a thorough thought on each of their topic and give my comments since time is not a luxury to me... Hopefully, when my current project is finished (it is scheduled to be completed on April 30th, 2005), I could get back to my usual bloghopping and blog-commenting activities,

So there it is, people, an insight of my professional work, of what I actually doing, and why I had been late to update this humble blog of mine... Thank U for dropping by, and have a pleasant week everyone.