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How many analog IC designers are there in the world?

Interesting question. I'm sure we can all estimate but getting a hard number will be difficult. Maybe looking at Analog tool licenses? Start with Cadence virtuoso. One thing I can tell you is the the number of analog designers has risen dramatically since the mobile revolution. Smartphones have pushed analog into the mainstream SoC designs on the newer processes. All analog hands are on deck, absolutely.
 
Thanks Daniel! That's exactly the type of data I meant. Do you have a rough estimate of the number of Cadence Virtuoso licenses?

Interesting question. I'm sure we can all estimate but getting a hard number will be difficult. Maybe looking at Analog tool licenses? Start with Cadence virtuoso. One thing I can tell you is the the number of analog designers has risen dramatically since the mobile revolution. Smartphones have pushed analog into the mainstream SoC designs on the newer processes. All analog hands are on deck, absolutely.
 
Virtuoso licenses... I believe even fully compliant licensees do hot seat workstations with it, or quietly tweak the license server. At least in China, most smaller companies wouldn't be able to afford it at all.
 
I did a search on LinkedIn for Analog Design and it came up with 338,000. If you search Semiconductor Analog Design it is 68,000. A search for Cadence Virtuoso comes up with 65,000. Not sure if that get's you where you need to be but I can make some calls and get vendor specific numbers next week.
 
So, this question is making me curious to ask another question. What is the job in the semiconductor industry which has the least count in the world?
(I mean which has high demand)
 
So, this question is making me curious to ask another question. What is the job in the semiconductor industry which has the least count in the world?
(I mean which has high demand)

In the semiconductor design world it is verification. That is the largest growing segment, the biggest problem, absolutely.
 
Do you mean digital verification, or analog verification, or system verification?
All of the above but I believe digital is the largest segment in regards to chip design manpower. The other one is physical verification (DRC and such). Systems verification is out of my scope as it is above the chip.
 
At least 20k ADE users exist from what I've heard. Idk if that helps give a baseline count for the number of people involved in analog IC design.
 
Thanks Rajanator! If you mean 20k ADE licenses, then the number of designers is actually much larger because a single license is usually shared by several designers. It indeed shows the actual number may be around 100k.
 
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