Once again I am going to express some personal opinion here.
I agree that accusing someone without proof is not right.
BUT if a person states as a fact that they quit their phd due to something associated with a supervisor is enough of a reason for me not to pick him.
I may be right or wrong in this but i believe that its better to be safe than sorry.
Also we are not judges here, no professor will have legal issues or something because a biased student did not pick them.

@monkia All you say is true. Pursuing a phd is both time consuming and tiring. Also, even if its funded, your wage is much smaller than it would be if you started your career having a regular job. So if you start and bump on such a bad supervisor you loose time, money and most importantly the will to continue!
Even if you find another supervisor that is legitimately good the damage in your psyche is already done and you wont be able to see your phd studies with the same passion and energy as you did in the start.
Or at least thats what I think

WOW
All this looks legitimately scary!
Especially for me who is searching to start a phd (and anyone else in my position I guess).
I understand that you may be not willing to share the professors name but can you at least mention the University this thing happened or the country/state ?
Thanks and I wish all of you a happy ending !

Thanks for your answer !

I am indeed searching only for funded phd positions which most of times come with a predefined subject. I already know what I want half of the subject to be ( something that will include hardware design in FPGA/ASIC) but i need to find the other half. By that i mean I want it to merge with another field that will give the theoretical background this hardware implementation will be based on. I have some areas that I have already worked on and have some experience (the ones I stated on my original post) but I have trouble deciding which will be the "best" or if I should look somewhere else. I am open to any suggestions/advices :)

Greetings everyone,
I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct section of the forum but hopefully I am.
I just finished my masters degree in electrical and computer engineering and I am convinced that pursuing a phd is the way to go.

What troubles me is the subject of it.
What i am interested in is hardware design. What I have already done in various projects is program an FPGA using VHDL.
So I would like to pair that interest with another field as the subject of my phd.
I have some background in cryptography, computer vision, computer networks and some other fields as part of my basic training.
So the big question is what is the most promising subfield of these or what else would you recommend.
I am open to hearing any kind of ideas.
Also, any general tips in starting a phd would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your inputs