Astera Labs

Senior Foundry Engineer, Silicon Technology

Astera Labs$120K — $160K *
Consumer Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • B.S or M.S in Electrical Engineering, Material Science, Semiconductor Engineering or related field
  • 5+ years in semiconductor device engineering and foundry support
  • Proficient in semiconductor process flows and yield drivers
  • Experience with tapeouts, PDK validation, and silicon characterization
  • Knowledgeable in SPICE models and silicon-to-model correlation
  • Strong communication skills with cross-functional teams
  • Familiar with TSMC as a foundry

Responsibilities

  • Analyze silicon data and process correlation for yield improvement
  • Optimize processes for enhanced power, performance, and yield
  • Investigate yield issues with foundries and internal teams
  • Support tapeout readiness reviews from a modeling and reliability perspective
  • Run DFM checks and communicate findings to design teams
  • Document PDK risks prior to tapeout
  • Validate circuit models against silicon measurements

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work closely with leading foundry and semiconductor technology partners
  • Dynamic position that contributes directly to product reliability and manufacturing success
  • Exposure to advanced technologies including FinFET and BiCMOS
  • Collaborative environment across multiple engineering disciplines
  • Access to an internal PDK qualification database to enhance workflow efficiency
Full Job Description
Job Description

We are seeking a Senior Foundry Engineer, Silicon Technology to support foundry engagement, silicon-to-model correlation, tapeout readiness, and yield improvement for advanced semiconductor products. This person will work closely with internal design, CAD layout, product engineering, test, reliability, operations teams and external foundry partners to identify risks, assess product impact, and drive timely resolution of process, PDK, model, DRC/DFM, and silicon-related issues.

Responsibilities Include
  • Silicon, process and yield correlation
    • Analyze process inline data, silicon test data, process drift and process correlation data
    • Fine tune processes to optimize power, performance and yield
    • Help identify process related contributors to parametric drift, yield loss, leakage, reliability risk
    • Work with foundry and internal teams to investigate yield issues and process excursions
    • Perform layout analysis where needed to understand process sensitivity, failures
  • Tapeout and DFM support
    • Support product tapeouts, tapeout readiness reviews from a PDK, DRC/DFM, device model and reliability perspective
    • Run or coordinate DFM checks on products and summarize findings for design and layout teams
    • Coordinate between foundry and physical design teams to disposition waivers taking performance, leakage, manufacturability and reliability in mind
    • Document known PDK, model, DRC, DFM or process risks before tapeout
    • Maintain an internal PDK qualification database across foundries and process nodes to reduce tapeout risk from unnoticed PDK or model changes
  • Foundry and PDK support
    • Support technical interactions with foundry partners on PDK, device models, process assumptions, design rules, DRC/DFM decks and reliability collateral
    • Track PDK versions, model updates, DRC/DFM runset changes, and foundry signoff recommendations
    • Compare PDK changes across versions and summarize potential design, layout, model or signoff impact
  • Device model and circuit model evaluation
    • Validate model behavior across voltage bias, temperature, process corners, and relevant operating conditions
    • Compare silicon measurements against SPICE/model predictions and help identify model gaps

Basic Qualifications:
  • B.S or M.S in Electrical Engineering, Material science, Semiconductor engineering or a related technical field
  • 5+ years of experience in semiconductor device engineering, foundry interface, silicon technology, process integration, yield/process correlation

Required Experience:
  • Working knowledge of semiconductor process flows, device physics, manufacturability, reliability and yield drivers
  • Experience supporting tapeouts, PDK validation, models, DRC/DFM, silicon bring up
  • Experience analyzing silicon, wafer-level, process monitors, product test, characterization, or reliability data
  • Prior experience at a foundry, IDM, fabless semiconductor company or a PDK/enablement organization
  • Familiarity with SPICE models, process corners, device behavior, layout effects and silicon-to-model correlation
  • Ability to communicate technical issues clearly across design, CAD, layout, test, products engineering and external foundries
  • Familiarity with using TSMC as a foundry

Preferred Experience:
  • Experience with advanced FinFET, gate-all-around/nanosheet technologies and BiCMOS technologies
  • Experience with SRAM, analog/mixed signal, RF, Serdes, low power design constraints
  • Experience benchmarking foundry nodes using spice models on representative circuits
  • Experience using foundry models to simulate junction breakdowns, SOA, ESD, aging, reliability or device operating limits

About Astera Labs

Astera Labs is a semiconductor company that designs and develops purpose-built connectivity solutions for data-centric systems. The company's portfolio of products includes system-aware semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), boards, and intellectual property (IP) that are used in data center servers, storage, and networking equipment. Astera Labs' products are designed to improve the performance, latency, and power consumption of data-centric systems. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Learn more about Astera Labs
Size
51 employees
Industry
Net Income
-$3 million
Founded
2018
Revenue
$5 million
NASDAQ

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