Staff Engineer, Failure Analysis

pSemi Corporation is a Murata company driving semiconductor integration. pSemi builds on Peregrine Semiconductor’s 30-year legacy of technology advancements and strong IP portfolio but with a new mission—to enhance Murata’s world-class capabilities with high-performance semiconductors. With a strong foundation in RF integration, pSemi’s product portfolio now spans power management, connected sensors, optical transceivers, antenna tuning and RF frontends. These intelligent and efficient semiconductors enable advanced modules for smartphones, base stations, personal computers, electric vehicles, data centers, IoT devices and healthcare. From headquarters in San Diego and offices around the world, pSemi’s team explores new ways to make electronics for the connected world smaller, thinner, faster and better.

Job Summary

The Staff Failure Analysis Engineer will be tasked with performing failure analysis on field returns, prototype builds, qualification failures, yield failures, and new product development on RF and mixed signal CMOS products. This position will support all pSemi IC products and packages.

The assigned tasks will be diverse and complex in nature, requiring exceptional organization skills, high attention to detail, sound judgement and proper assessment. This position will be seen as a leadership role providing guidance, mentorship, and training to other less senior members of the FA group.  

 Roles & Responsibilities

This position has responsibility for:

• Perform preliminary failure analysis as needed, including external visual examination, scanning acoustic microscopy, radiographic examination, and bench testing
• Perform integrated circuit (IC) fault isolation to identify failure mechanism(s) utilizing schematics, layouts, IC design analysis, Focused Ion Beam (FIB) deposited pad microprobing, device characterization, nanoprobing, Photon Emission Microscopy (PEM), Externally Induced Voltage Alteration (XIVA) and IR Thermal Emission
• Perform electrical bench testing and interpret ATE datalogs to aid in localizing electrical failures
• Perform physical analysis,  including IC deprocessing, parallel lapping, cross-sectioning  and package construction analysis to aid in localizing and identifying failure mechanism
• Develop, characterize, and optimize FA techniques and tools to advance FA capabilities and efficiency
• Work with designers and other engineering groups to isolate root cause of failures
• Generate detailed failure analysis reports for both internal and external customers
• Expert at many fault isolation techniques such as PEM, XIVA, and thermal emission
• Mentor other engineers in fault isolation and electrical techniques as needed

 

 Competency Requirements

In order to perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Critical Thinking: Skilled at finding logical flaws in arguments and plans; identifies problems and solutions that others might miss; provides detailed insight and constructive criticism into problems and complex situations
• Working with Ambiguity: Achieves forward progress in the face of poorly defined situations and/or unclear goals; able to work effectively with limited or partial information
• Prioritizing and Organizing Work: Allocates time and attention based on what is the most important to achieve key goals and objectives; approaches work in an organized and systematic manner; effectively manages tasks, information, and requests
• Displaying Technical Expertise: Keeps his/her technical skills current; effectively applies specialized knowledge and skills to perform work tasks; understands and masters the technical skills, knowledge, and tasks associated with his/her job; shares technical expertise with others
• Evaluating and implementing Ideas: Defines requirements and resources needed to implement new ideas; approaches innovation with a practical, task-oriented mindset; converts ideas from general concepts into actionable plans

Minimum Qualifications (Experience and Skills)

• Typically requires 6 to 8 years of experience in failure analysis engineering, product engineering, characterization engineering, or design experience, depending on education level
• Extreme attention to detail
• RF Experience
• Comfort and desire to be challenged
• An attitude/practice of continuous improvement

 Preferred Qualifications

• Strong desire to increase one's depth and breadth in the field of fault isolation/failure analysis
• A positive mindset towards tackling tasks and challenges

 Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering required
• Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering preferred

 

Work Envir