2024: The Year in Review
Most read articles, interesting posts and a reflection of how this publication began and where it is going.
I have been writing this Substack for a year, and honestly it’s been a fantastic journey for me. I sincerely appreciate the time you take from your busy life to read what I write. It’s been a wild ride that I never imagined, and I’m excited for 2025!
I want to emphasize that your readership, kind words, and support for this newsletter means a lot to me, and has kept me motivated to keep writing.
Today’s post is a reflection on the state of this publication in 2024. It is a way to share my journey with those who might be interested, and also for me to look back on later. I will also share my thoughts on where this publication is headed in 2025 and a summary of published articles.
Publication Stats
As an engineer and a data nerd, I look at publication stats way more than I should. Here they are for 2024, and also the results of last week’s annual survey.
I’ve spent about 1000 hours writing 100,000+ words in the form of 48 articles, that have amassed 230,000+ page views.
The number of subscribers has grown from 200 to about 4,600, which is way more than I expected.
Readers are from 45 US states and 98 countries. 37% US, 28% India, 3% Germany, 3% UK, 3% Canada. 26% from the rest of the world.
Readers are 59% industry professionals, 17% students, 11% investors and 7% from academia/research.
Over 80% of readers prefer the length of each article to be as-is (~10-12 min read), and the frequency to remain as-is (1x/week). Results show that I can trend towards the direction of longer, but fewer articles. Not shorter but more frequent.
76% of readers say that articles have helped in their professional or educational work, and 84% of readers are not looking for a job (this Substack is not intended to help you pass interviews anyway, but if it helps (for 6% of readers) then great!)
The Beginnings
This is my first year of writing this publication on Substack and I have learnt a lot from writing these articles. It has been progressively getting more fun with every article I research and write. I hope you enjoyed reading these posts as much as I enjoyed writing them, and that they helped you in whatever small way.
For most part of the year, I was mostly focused on RF, analog and communications related topics because that is my primary area of expertise. My intention was to document what I learned or already have experience in, and share it with others. Early readers might have found the content overly technical, often quite mathematical, which might have been relevant only if you directly worked in the field. Readers were still very supportive of my writing, and I thank you for that.
Et tu Nostradamus?
Somewhere along the way, I found out that quartz was a key ingredient for semiconductor manufacturing and went down a rabbit hole to find out why. As it turns out, a lonesome mining facility in Spruce Pine is the key supplier of high purity quartz for all of semiconductors. I wrote an article about it with a needlessly dramatic title: “The Semiconductor Apocalypse No One Would See Coming.”
Then the ‘apocalypse’ hit. Hurricane Helene rocked the east coast of the US and shut down mining operations in Spruce Pine. In a strange turn of events, I had written about it only a few months before, making it seem prescient. There was a sudden flurry of activity on my article, with other writers linking to it and a news outlet even interviewed me. Quartz supply turned out to be fine, but it was an entertaining time!
Outside Comfort Zones
After about 6 months of writing, I decided to expand my horizons by exploring the field of automotive radar, by learning it from scratch and sharing it via a series of posts. The article on estimation of velocity using FMCW radar was my first real success, reaching the front page of HackerNews. It was quite exhilarating!
I also collaborated with Georgia Tech PhD student Hani Al-Jamal on an article about phased arrays that fold up using origami inspired designs, that did quite well in terms of readership. Towards the end of the year, the list of topics I was interested in kept growing. I explored Lidar technology, which became my most read article of the year with 25,000+ views because it reached #2 on HackerNews frontpage.
Looking Ahead
I recently updated my Substack with a cartoon image of a planar metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor as the logo, and widened the scope of the publication to include all things related to semiconductor technology. As one astute reader pointed out, “Aren’t you entering a crowded Substack space? I liked your fresh RF/analog content.” — here’s the thing …
I will still keep writing about RF/analog, but there are many exciting developments to learn about. Devices for logic and memory are getting smaller. Silicon photonics is on the rise. Power electronics is more in demand as automobiles get electrified. Space technology is rapidly advancing with declining launch costs. Packaging technology is becoming increasingly important with the emergence of chiplets. Oh, and quantum computers, whatever they are.
In 2025, I want to explore all these topics and more. My approach to all these areas will be from first principles, in an attempt to understand it for myself as clearly as possible. The differentiating feature of this Substack will be the in-depth technical explanations of all these topics, in a way that is easy to understand. I am no expert in all these areas, but going outside comfort zones has been good for me, and good for this publication. It’s a challenge I am excited to embark on!
Thank You
This will be the last post for 2024, so thank you for your readership and support.
I am spending quality time in Malaysia and Singapore with my family over these holidays who have been extremely supportive of me, with my long workdays juggling both my day job and writing for this Substack. I hope you are able to rest and rejuvenate for the coming year too.
I’ll see you in the new year!
Most Read Articles
To wrap up 2024 in a neat little bow, here is a summary of the most read articles this year and others sorted by category, in case you missed them.
Here are the top 5 most read articles on this Substack in 2024.
A Short Introduction to Lidar Technology — A guide to the operating principles, techniques and technology in lidar systems for self driving cars.
How Origami-Inspired Phased Arrays are Reshaping the Future of Antennas — Folding antennas into different shapes to create near infinite radiation patterns.
How Automotive Radar Measures the Velocity of Objects — How to design the perfect chirp signal for distance and velocity measurement.
How Foundries Calculate Die Yield — Understanding the metric that Intel used to abandon a whole technology node.
A Guide to Noise Sources in MOS Transistors — Learn how thermal, flicker, shot and induced noises in MOS transistors contribute to the generated noise spectrum, with each having its own frequency dependence.
RF Technology
A lot of my focus this year was on RF technology. Here is a list of articles:
The Promise of Terahertz Technology — THz radiations finds unique applications in astronomy, medicine and communications, but not without its own distinct challenges.
The Extraordinary Properties of Artificial Metamaterials — Understanding how a class of manmade materials can seemingly defy the laws of physics.
The Dark History behind Radio Communication — The story of Howard Armstrong, David Sarnoff and the Radio Corporation of America, and how the superheterodyne receiver architecture works.
A Brief History of RF Switch Technology — From PIN diodes, RF MEMS, MESFETs, and HEMTs to RF silicon-on-insulator technology, how the evolution of a circuit as simple as a switch is much more complex than it seems like on the surface.
Phase Change Materials: Is it the Future of RF Switch Technology? — A phase-change-material acts like glass or metal after an appropriate thermal pulse and can be used for fantastic RF switching. But how does it compare to RF silicon-on-insulator technology?
The State-of-the-Art in RF Filter Technology — How acoustic wave and electrical filters shape the spectrum of our wireless world.
How Tuning, Filtering and Switching helps your Smartphone deal with 50+ Unique Frequencies — The received signal from the antenna can take 100+ different paths through the RF front end. Tuners, filters and switches make the magic happen.
Photonics
I’ve just started out on the topic of silicon photonics, so I plan to significantly build up my writing in this area.
Why We Can’t Build Lasers on Silicon? — Silicon's Achilles Heel is that its indirect bandgap prevents the implementation of high performance integrated lasers which are much desired in photonic integrated circuits.
Power Electronics
Wide Bandgap semiconductors are interesting for a variety of applications. I plan to get into the specifics of the transistors used, and other related topics in the future.
Understanding How Electric Vehicles Convert Battery Power Into Propulsion — How IGBT and SiC based traction inverters use power from the lithium ion battery pack to drive the motors using sinusoidal pulse width modulation.
Series of Articles on Topics:
For the sake of continuity, I often dig into a topic for several weeks at a stretch. I find it easier to hold on to trains of thought, and write articles more easily. Here are some collections:
FMCW Automotive Radar
Power Amplifiers
Phased Arrays
For the rest of the articles, please check out the archive.
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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely mine; they do not reflect the views or positions of my employer or any entities I am affiliated with. The content provided is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional or investment advice.
Excellent Vik. Congratulations 🎊. Have a great new year 2025
Congrats on a great first year!