Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing this letter, as part of my application to the Masters in Analogue MixedSignal Integrated Circuits being offered at your institute. Let me begin with a small
account of my academic and professional background.
After completing high-school, I did my bachelors in Electronics and Communications
engineering from Mahatma Gandhi University in India. I was offered a job at Infosys,
a business technology and IT solutions consultancy MNC in India. I was trained to
work in the newly commissioned business and data analytics vertical at Infosys. I
got a good opportunity to sharpen my programing skills, for which I had a taste from
my schooldays. Even though data analytics and internet of things were not yet the
buzzwords they are today back in 2011, I got a good exposure to what was coming
up next; the era of personal computers starting to give way to the next wave of
innovation driven by the deluge of data that we create every day. I was, at the same
time searching a good course to continue my studies in electronics, and got
admitted into the masters program in microelectronics that is jointly offered by
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Technical University of Munich. I
must say the exposure I got was more than I could ever imagine, and I made most
use of it as I could. I was able to finish second top of our cohort, and got my thesis
selected as the best from our batch.
As part of my studies I did my internship and master thesis at Globalfoundries,
Singapore. Although Globalfoundries is predominantly a CMOS foundry, and my
course had focused mainly on CMOS manufacturing and MOS physics, I chose to
work in the newly created MEMS department, where I did my master thesis
research. At that point I could have chosen a project in a CMOS background, simply
to increase my probability of landing a job after my thesis work. But, I wanted to
work in MEMS, for it was, and perhaps still is a real challenge bringing MEMS
technologies to commercial high volume production readiness. This is very opposed
to CMOS processes and technologies that are extremely standardized and
saturating to the point where Moores law is no longer valid. The fact that almost
every sensor out in the consumer electronic market be it inertial, optical sensors
or even fingerprint sensors on the iPhones have a MEMS element at its heart made
it all the more exciting. Following my graduation I was offered a full time position as
technology development engineer at Globalfoundries.
It was indeed a steep learning curve, for every MEMS device has its own domain of
physics, and apart from the processes, you need to be aware of the physical
phenomena that the senor element makes use of to do its job. My fist product was
an accelerometer which I was able to deliver successfully recently. I am also
simultaneously working on developing a process platform for piezoelectric
ultrasound sensors, targeting fingerprint and gesture recognition. I also worked on
PDK development activities for MEMS, and is familiar with the EDA ecosystem. From
my experience at Globalfoundries, I got a good understanding of the role played by
the conditioning ASIC in the success of sensors. On numerous occasions I have
worked with IC designers from collaborating research institutes in Singapore, which

also made me realize the importance of ASICs that take into consideration, the
effects from the sensors manufacturing line.
I have been closely following the developments in the IoT, and data science space,
and always tried to update my skills. While coding is easily self-taught, I often found
teaching myself IC design more challenging, considering the time I have got after
my work and the guidance that is not as freely and easily accessible as for
programing languages. I have been considering this master in IC design, and
specifically analog and mixed signals for a long time now, and I find your course the
right stepping stone to make this transition.
It is the next move in my vision to develop my career in consumer electronics
product development. In the long run I want to use my skills to create useful
solutions to everyday problems. I have few ideas that I have been working on in my
spare time. The semiconductor scene in Ireland has been a melting pot of
innovation and international collaboration, with multinational and indigenous
companies that are involved in all stages of the semiconductor value chain from
initial design through to fabrication. It is also very exciting to see that there are
quite a lot of semiconductor startups in Ireland like ChipSensors, Glonav, Movidius
and Decawave. This is very different from Singapore where semiconductor startups
have been rare despite tremendous backing from the local government.
I am well aware of Tyndalls well-respected reputation and industry relevant
research output. I am confident that with my experience and passion for furthering
my studies in this field I would be a profitable addition to your organization, and I
assure you that I am ready to put in any effort to the best of my abilities to achieve
my goals if I am given the chance. Looking forward to your favorable decision.
Yours Sincerely
Sharath P Satheesh