Chip-level electronics engineering — FPGA architecture, Verilog vs VHDL, the ASIC design flow from RTL to silicon, how semiconductors are actually manufactured, digital logic fundamentals, signal integrity, and embedded systems architecture (MCU/MPU/SoC).
Build a small combinational circuit from AND/OR/NOT/NAND/NOR/XOR/XNOR gates and see its truth table generated live.
Searchable side-by-side reference of common HDL constructs — module/entity, always/process, if/case, assignment operators — in both languages.
Searchable reference of common integrated circuit package types — DIP, SOIC, QFP, BGA, QFN, CSP — with pin counts and typical uses.
IPC-2221 current-capacity trace width sizing plus IPC-2141 microstrip and stripline characteristic impedance.
Inverting/non-inverting amplifier gain, plus single-pole RC low-pass and high-pass filter cutoff frequency.
Electronics and digital hardware work is not gated by a single discipline-wide PE license the way civil or electrical power engineering is — instead, the credentials that matter are technician-level certifications (the ETA International CET ladder), manufacturing workmanship standards used across the industry (IPC-A-610), and a solid grounding in digital logic and FPGA fundamentals that underpins chip and board-level design work. This overview covers all three tracks: what each covers, who administers it, and how they fit together.
CET Associate prep: DC and AC circuit theory, diode/BJT/MOSFET fundamentals, digital logic basics, and DMM/oscilloscope test-equipment skills — the entry-level ETA International technician credential.
IPC-A-610 prep: solder joint acceptability classes, common assembly defects, component placement/orientation standards, and ESD handling — the workmanship standard behind Certified IPC Specialist training.
Digital Logic & FPGA Fundamentals prep: Boolean algebra and combinational logic, sequential logic and finite state machines, Verilog/VHDL basics, and FPGA architecture — the assumed-knowledge foundation for chip and board-level digital design.