RF Test and PCB Design Engineer

RF Test and PCB Design Engineer

Join our innovative team as an RF Test and PCB Design Engineer, where you will play a crucial role in designing and testing complex RF evaluation boards. You will lead the development of high-performance PCBs, ensuring optimal RF performance through rigorous simulation, analysis, and hardware bring-up processes. Your work will directly impact the success of our RFIC Design and System Engineering teams, providing critical feedback and ensuring that our products meet the highest standards of quality and performance.

Responsibilities

• PCB Development: Lead the schematic entry, component selection, and layout routing optimization for complex RF evaluation boards using Cadence Allegro.
• Simulation & Analysis: Perform Signal Integrity (SI) and Power Integrity (PI) simulations. Utilize Ansys HFSS for EM modeling and impedance matching to ensure optimal RF performance.
• Hardware Bring-up: Own the board bring-up process, including debugging hardware issues and validating performance against design specifications.
• RF Characterization: Utilize lab equipment (VNAs, Spectrum Analyzers, Signal Generators) to perform various RF measurements and verify simulation-to-measurement correlations. Implement Machine Learning (ML) techniques to analyze large datasets and identify performance trends or anomalies.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with RFIC Design and System Engineering teams to define board requirements and provide feedback on chip-level performance.
• Documentation & Data Analysis: Maintain detailed design documentations and test reports for internal and external stakeholders. Collect, review, and analyze test data.

Requirements

• Education: BS or MS in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field.
• Experience: 5+ years of hands-on experience in RF PCB design and hardware development.
• Tools: Expert-level proficiency in Cadence Allegro/OrCAD and Ansys HFSS (or equivalent EM simulation tools).
• RF Fundamentals: Strong knowledge of RF theory, including S-parameters, transmission line theory, matching networks, and de-embedding techniques.
• Lab Expertise: Extensive experience with RF test equipment (VNAs, Spectrum Analyzers, Oscilloscopes) and high-speed probing techniques.
• Materials Knowledge: Deep understanding of PCB stack-ups, dielectric materials (e.g., Rogers, Megtron), and manufacturing constraints for high-frequency PCB designs.

• Automation: Proficiency in Python or C# for developing automated test suites to increase characterization throughput.
• Data Science for RF: Experience applying AI/ML models for predictive maintenance of test setups or for signal classification.
• Wafer-Level Testing: Experience with manual or semi-automated RF probe stations for on-wafer die characterization.