Electrical Design Engineer (FPGA, RTL, DSP/Image Processing)

Company Overview

KLA is a global leader in diversified electronics for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Virtually every electronic device in the world is produced using our technologies. No laptop, smartphone, wearable device, voice-controlled gadget, flexible screen, VR device or smart car would have made it into your hands without us. KLA invents systems and solutions for the manufacturing of wafers and reticles, integrated circuits, packaging, printed circuit boards and flat panel displays. The innovative ideas and devices that are advancing humanity all begin with inspiration, research and development. KLA focuses more than average on innovation and we invest 15% of sales back into R&D. Our expert teams of physicists, engineers, data scientists and problem-solvers work together with the world’s leading technology providers to accelerate the delivery of tomorrow’s electronic devices. Life here is exciting and our teams thrive on tackling really hard problems. There is never a dull moment with us.

Group/Division

With over 40 years of semiconductor process control experience, chipmakers around the globe rely on KLA to ensure that their fabs ramp next-generation devices to volume production quickly and cost-effectively. Enabling the movement towards advanced chip design, KLA's Global Products Group (GPG), which is responsible for creating all of KLA’s metrology and inspection products, is looking for the best and the brightest research scientist, software engineers, application development engineers, and senior product technology process engineers. The Broadband Plasma Division (BBP) provides market-leading patterned wafer optical inspection systems for leading-edge IC manufacturing. Logic, foundry, and memory customers depend on BBP products to detect yield-critical defects for process debug and excursion monitoring at advanced process nodes. BBP flagship products include the 29xx and 39xx series which leverage Broadband Plasma technology to capture a wide range of defects with ultimate sensitivity at the optical inspection speeds needed for inline defect monitoring.

Job Description/Preferred Qualifications

As an Image Computer (IMC) team member, this engineer will work with other team members to design, build, and test high-speed, high-throughput IMC using off-the-shelf and custom-built components.
 

Responsibilities:

• Participate in all phases of FPGA design flow - from concept to wafer inspection tool integration.

• Able to derive FPGA design requirements from system requirements.

• Responsible for RTL design and verification, as well as hardware bring-up.

• Implement logic/control blocks, including custom filters, DSP/image processing blocks, a high-speed image data path, and a processor and memory interface to support real-time processing.

• Optimize FPGA designs for the area, speed, and power to meet system requirements; analyze architectural trade-offs and validate for system sample rate and latency.

• Verify DSP/image processing blocks against Python/MATLAB models and collaborate with systems engineers.

• Run implementation tools, such as Xilinx Vivado and Intel Quartus; perform timing closure for your designs.

• Bring up and validate FPGA design in the lab and use various lab equipment.

• Collaborate with software engineers to integrate the design into the wafer Inspection tools.

• Contribute to all phases of hardware development, including creating design documents, reviewing schematics, bringing up new hardware, and defining/overseeing/performing unit and system tests.

• Validate FPGA design for manufacturing release.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing DSP and/or image processing datapath

• Experience in working with FPGAs

• Some experience designing hardware (schematic entry, layout, etc.) is a plus

• Strong programming and scripting skills: MATLAB, Python, C/C++, Perl, Tcl

• Understanding of clock domain crossing (CDC) techniques

• Experience in FPGAs, evaluation boards, and knowledge of FPGA design flow

• Understanding industry-standard interfaces, protocols, and architectures: PCIe, Ethernet, DDR, etc.

• Experience in developing automated, self-checking test benches and/or UVM

• Experience in EDA tools such as simulators (e.g., Questa), and FPGA tools (e.g., Vivado, Quartus)

• Knowledge of timing closure techniques for high-speed design

• Strong interpersonal/written/verbal