Photonics Engineer

Physics World; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job description

About

At Zero Point Motion we are redefining the limits of inertial sensors to enable high precision positioning and navigation. Our mission is providing exquisitely low-noise readout of acceleration and rotation using cavity optomechanics in a hybrid micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chip.

We’re an early stage start-up founded in 2020 to commercialise technology invented by the CEO Dr Lia Li, with a founding team comprised of eminent semiconductor veterans. We operate a fabless business model, and are VC funded.

We are seeking enthusiastic technical engineers to join our team and shape our technology design, strategy, and workflow. Together we will bring aerospace/defence levels of sensor performance to commercial mass markets and transform indoor, autonomous and GNSS-denied navigation. Can you help us disrupt the inertial sensing market?

Zero Point Motion is based in Bristol and supports virtual working practices where applicable.

Role Overview

We are seeking experienced PIC design and testing engineers to support development of our MEMS/PIC inertial sensor devices. Our collaborative culture of knowledge exchange means no prior experience in MEMS inertial sensors is required, just your enthusiasm to learn. We are especially eager to find candidates with experience in chipscale LIDAR, optical switches or MEMS-enabled silicon photonics.

You will be working directly with the CEO/founder and an existing photonics team comprising of Lead and Senior engineers. You will be responsible for the design and testing of MOEMS inertial sensors for high volume commercial applications. Your background in integrated silicon and/or silicon nitride PICs including laser and detector testing will influence key design decisions and test flows.

You will be part of our core technical team working with an experienced group of electronic engineers, physicists, chip designers and hardware engineers in a fast-paced environment that requires self-motivation and a willingness to embrace new ideas. We want dynamic people that understand the scale and nature of our goal, who can challenge our assumptions. This is an exciting opportunity for a PIC engineer to join a small start-up with big ambitions who will value your personal initiative.

What you’ll accomplish

• Work with foundry PDKs and custom process flows to design custom components.
• Simulate and analyse impact of process variations and determine their impacts on KPIs.
• Collaborate closely with the MEMS and Process teams to make key contributions in the overall design, layout and testing of our unique PIC/MEMS devices.
• Aid in testing of PIC devices in our laboratory and work closely with other PIC engineers to analyse experimental data, especially debugging experimental discrepancies with simulation.
• Use simulations to improve input/output performances of the photonic integrated circuit through novel component design.

The critical attributes we’ll use to compare candidates

• Demonstratable experience of silicon and/or silicon nitride PIC component design and simulation, especially using Lumerical software suite.
• Previous experience modelling and analysing target and variations of circuits using simulated component data (INTERCONNECT preferred).
• Understanding and previous experience of modelling process variations across a wafer.
• Broad knowledge base across light sources and detectors that translates into modelling their impacts on PIC design.
• A passion to learn beyond PICs by applying your skills to understand MEMS inertial sensors.
• Ability to analyse impacts from beyond the PIC, including simulating impacts from thermals, packaging and MEMs processes.
• Previous experience in performing PIC layout, ideally using python scripting.
• Lab testing of photonic integrated devices is advantageous.
• Previous design experience or a working understanding of lasers and photodiodes is advantageous.
• Discipline on documentation and reporting, with an ability to distil key takeaways to team members in other fields to photonics.

Must-have-skills

• Masters/ PhD in Physics or Engineering;
• PIC design, tape out and experimental testing experience (3+ years preferable);
• Experience with working within small engineering teams or research groups;
• Demonstrate a strong discipline for thorough documentation;
• Ability to distil and communicate scientific information effectively with the wider team;
• Highly adaptable, good communication and interpersonal skills.

Package

• Competitive salary;
• Generous company package including share options, Royal London pension, and sick pay;
• Flexible working arrangements.

Location & Travel

Zero Point Motion’s office and lab space is located in the Bristol University Quantum Technologies Innovation Center amongst likeminded start-up companies. There will be occasional travel throughout the UK and abroad for conferences, meetings and engineering visits.