ASIC Validation Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA, US

Job Description / Skills Required

Avicena is a privately held company developing microLED based ultra-low power high bandwidth interconnects for chip-to-chip communications.  This technology will revolutionize High-Performance (HPC) and Cloud computing, as well as other industries where low power interconnects are critical like camera sensors, autonomous vehicles, and aerospace. Avicena is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with a development center in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company was founded in 2019 by leading technologists from the optical networking industry with a track record of delivering breakthrough products.  (www.avicena.tech)   

Responsibilities:

  • Bring up, debug and characterize ASIC ICs on evaluation platforms. 

  • Set up test plans and infrastructure for ASIC IC bring up and characterization and provide input of eval PCBA designs towards completion ASIC performance verification/characterization. 

  • Selection of key test and Silicon communication instruments/tools required to complete ASIC bring up/verification and characterization. 

  • Work with test software developer to define and help test software for ASIC debug/characterization. 

  • Analyze test results, diagnose issues, revise test setups and procedures to improve measurements and isolate functional and performance issues. 

Qualifications:

  • BS or higher in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field with 2+ years of work experience. 

  • Must be proficient with standard communication protocols such as I2C, SPI, MDIO and ethernet. 

  • Knowledge of analog communication circuits. 

  • Understanding of RF design and testing using various optical and electronic test equipment including oscilloscopes, digital communications analyzers, vector network analyzers (VNAs), optical power meters, power supplies is highly desirable. 

  • Ability to do lab automation scripting with Python is a must.

  • Ability to work with and program microcontrollers and/or FPGAs is a plus. 

  • Flexible, quick learner, ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment. 

  • Familiarity with the physics of semiconductor devices (emitters and photodetectors) is desirable.