Electrical Engineer – ASIC Test & Validation

Avicena Tech; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Avicena Tech in Sunnyvale, CA is seeking an early‑career Electrical Engineer to support the development, validation, and production test of custom ASICs and the associated precision electronic hardware. The role emphasizes hands‑on lab work, disciplined debugging, and translating circuit requirements into reliable PCB designs.

You will collaborate with experienced hardware, test, and automation engineers on mixed‑signal, digital, and high‑speed test systems; responsibilities span schematic

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or closely related field.
• 0-3 years of relevant industry, internship, research, or substantial project experience.
• Familiarity with electronic schematic capture and PCB design workflows.
• Experience with OrCAD is preferred; Altium Designer, KiCad, Cadence Allegro, or comparable tools are also acceptable.
• Foundational understanding of analog and digital circuit design, including op amps, ADCs/DACs, power regulation, MOSFETs, clocking, and digital interfaces.
• Familiarity with PCB layout fundamentals, including component placement, return paths, grounding, decoupling, differential pairs, controlled impedance, and high‑speed routing practices.
• Comfort working hands‑on in a lab with electronic test equipment and soldering/rework tools.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and a methodical approach to isolating hardware and test issues.
• Ability to read component datasheets, application notes, schematics, and board fabrication/assembly documentation.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document experiments and communicate technical findings.

Responsibilities

• Develop schematics for precision analog, digital, mixed‑signal, power, and high‑speed interface boards.
• Perform PCB layout or work closely with layout resources to implement controlled‑impedance, low‑noise designs.
• Support ASIC evaluation, characterization, wafer‑level or packaged‑device testing, and production test development.
• Create and maintain test hardware, evaluation boards, sensor boards, interconnect hardware, and supporting electronics.
• Bring up newly fabricated boards; perform systematic debug, root‑cause analysis, rework, and design validation.
• Use oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, DMMs, SMUs, power supplies, electronic loads, spectrum analyzers, and other lab instrumentation to characterize circuits and devices.
• Develop test procedures, test scripts, data‑collection workflows, and clear engineering documentation.
• Analyze electrical test data and communicate results, anomalies, and implement corrective actions.
• Support component selection, BOM creation, schematic review, DFM/DFT review, and vendor/manufacturing communication.
• Contribute to signal‑integrity, power‑integrity, grounding, shielding, thermal, and reliability considerations in board‑level designs.
• Maintain organized revision control and documentation for schematics, layouts, test results, and release packages.

Skills

Hands-on lab

Debugging

Troubleshooting

Documentation

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

OrCAD

Altium Designer

KiCad

Cadence Allegro

Oscilloscope

Logic Analyzer

DMM

SMU

Power Supply

Spectrum Analyzer

Job description

Job Title

Electrical Engineer - ASIC Test & Validation

Job Title

Electrical Engineer - ASIC Test & Validation

About The Role

• We are seeking an early-career Electrical Engineer to support the development, validation, and production test of custom ASICs and the precision electronic hardware used to characterize them. This role is well suited to an engineer who enjoys hands‑on lab work, disciplined debugging, and translating circuit requirements into reliable PCB designs.
• You will work alongside experienced hardware, test, and automation engineers on mixed‑signal, digital, and high‑speed test systems.
• Responsibilities will span schematic capture, PCB layout execution and/or coordination with layout contractors, bring‑up, ASIC characterization, and test‑data analysis.

Responsibilities

• Develop schematics for precision analog, digital, mixed‑signal, power, and high‑speed interface boards.
• Perform PCB layout or work closely with layout resources to implement controlled‑impedance, low‑noise, and manufacturable designs.
• Support ASIC evaluation, characterization, wafer‑level or packaged‑device testing, and production test development.
• Create and maintain test hardware, evaluation boards, sensor boards, interconnect hardware, and supporting electronics.
• Bring up newly fabricated boards; perform systematic debug, root‑cause analysis, rework, and design validation.
• Use oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, DMMs, SMUs, power supplies, electronic loads, spectrum analyzers, and other lab instrumentation to characterize circuits and devices.
• Develop test procedures, test scripts, data‑collection workflows, and clear engineering documentation.
• Analyze electrical test data and communicate results, anomalies, and implement corrective actions.
• Support component selection, BOM creation, schematic review, DFM/DFT review, and vendor/manufacturing communication.
• Contribute to signal‑integrity, power‑integrity, grounding, shielding, thermal, and reliability considerations in board‑level designs.
• Maintain organized revision control and documentation for schematics, layouts, test results, and release packages.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• 0-3 years of relevant industry, internship, research, or substantial project experience.
• Familiarity with electronic schematic capture and PCB design workflows.
• Experience with OrCAD is preferred; Altium Designer, KiCad, Cadence Allegro, or comparable tools are also acceptable.
• Foundational understanding of analog and digital circuit design, including op amps, ADCs/DACs, power regulation, MOSFETs, clocking, and digital interfaces.
• Familiarity with PCB layout fundamentals, including component placement, return paths, grounding, decoupling, differential pairs, controlled impedance, and high‑speed routing practices.
• Comfort working hands‑on in a lab with electronic test equipment and soldering/rework tools.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and a methodical approach to isolating hardware and test issues.
• Ability to read component datasheets, application notes, schematics, and board fabrication/assembly documentation.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document experiments and communicate technical findings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Coursework, projects, internships, or experience involving semiconductor devices, ASICs, IC characterization, ATE, probe cards, or automated test.
• Familiarity with common interfaces such as SPI, I²C, UART, GPIO, JTAG, Ethernet, USB, LVDS, DDR, or SerDes concepts.
• Exposure to embedded hardware and firmware development, including microcontroller‑based systems, board‑support bring‑up, peripheral interfaces, and hardware/firmware debug.
• Experience writing embedded C/C++ or Python for hardware control, test automation, data acquisition, and instrument communication.
• Familiarity with embedded development workflows and tools such as debuggers, JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, serial consoles, and version control.
• Experience with common microcontroller platforms or families - such as STM32, Microchip, NXP, Nordic, TI, ESP32, or similar is a plus.
• Exposure to Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, or similar tools for test automation and data analysis.
• Experience with PCB fabrication and assembly release processes, including Gerbers/ODB++, stackups, DFM, and BOM management.
• Familiarity with soldering fine‑pitch packages, board rework, or fixture assembly.
• Basic understanding of SI/PI concepts, low‑noise measurement techniques, EMI/EMC considerations, or RF fundamentals.
• Experience using Git or other revision‑control systems for engineering files, embedded firmware, and test software.
• Experience with STM32 microcontrollers and the STM32CubeIDE / STM32CubeMX development ecosystem is preferred.