Product Development Engineer (Semiconductor/Capital Equipment)

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

The selected Product Development Engineer will work within the Broadband Plasma products. This role will involve requirements analysis, system design and testing of complex inspection systems using expertise from multiple technical fields. The selected candidate will:
 

• Work with marketing and engineering teams to define system and subsystem requirements, create and execute test plans to validate system performance

• Analyze wafer inspection system performance parameters using first principles related to light, imaging, cameras, optical aberrations, coordinate transformations, control systems, vibrations, image/signal processing, and metrology tools and sensors

• Collaborate with functional groups to define and review designs to solve customer problems

• Support internal and external customers in implementing processes to build and use the tool effectively and solve intricate problems to optimize tool performance

Qualifications

• Strong background in engineering or the physical science and demonstrated analysis and problem-solving skills.

• Strong diagnostic and troubleshooting skills in optics, opto-mechanics, and motion control systems

• Experience with scripting languages, Matlab and/OR Python is required.

• Solid experience with Optics, Machine Vision and Image analysis methods is required.

• Understanding of Optical, Electromechanical and Software systems and their interactions in the context of complex industrial equipment is a plus.

• Familiarity with scientific and statistical analysis tools and SW tools such as JMP, Zemax, Excel VBA is beneficial.

• Enthusiastic communicator to provide detailed guidance to colleagues to solve problems, and technical summaries for internal and external customers.

• Ability to travel occasionally

• PhD with at least one year of experience; Master's degree with three years' experience; Bachelor's degree with five years' experience

Minimum Qualifications

Doctorate (Academic) Degree and 0 years related work experience; Master's Level Degree and related work experience of 3 years; Bachelor's Level Degree and related work experience of 5 years

Base Pay Range: $117,800.00 - $200,300.00 Annually

Primary Location: USA-CA-Milpitas-KLA

KLA’s total rewards package for employees may also include participation in performance incentive programs and eligibility for additional benefits including but not limited to: medical, dental