Nanofabrication Engineer for Single-Molecule Photonics

Pumpkinseed; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Ground-floor opportunity

Series A backed by investors

Active contracts with Genentech/BARDA

Job summary

Pumpkinseed is seeking a PhD-level fabrication scientist to scale single-molecule nanophotonic sensors from research to wafer-scale manufacturing in Palo Alto, California. You will own end-to-end lithography, etch, and thin-film processes and drive high-yield, CMOS-compatible production.

You'll collaborate with photonics designers, chemists, biologists, and ML engineers to align device capabilities with system requirements and transfer processes to foundries for large-scale production.

Qualifications

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field with hands-on cleanroom fabrication.
• Extensive cleanroom experience including high-resolution electron-beam lithography and photolithography.
• Experience with RIE/ICP dry etch, BOE wet etch, and various thin-film deposition methods.
• Strong ability to learn new tools quickly and work with cross-functional teams.
• Fluency in nanoscale metrology and characterization techniques such as SEM, AFM, and ellipsometry.

Responsibilities

• Fabrication: Own end-to-end nanofabrication flows in university and national-lab cleanrooms — electron-beam and photolithography, RIE and wet etching, and thin-film deposition to realize state of the art single-molecule nanophotonic sensors.
• Characterization & Metrology: Close the loop between design and realized device fabrication with electron microscopy, thin-film metrology, elemental analysis, and high-resolution optical characterization.
• Integration & Testing: Develop, optimize, and troubleshoot processes for integrating devices, rigorously testing their compatibility and performance with chemical and biological systems.
• Process Development: Take a fabrication step from first principles to a validated, reproducible, high-yield process.
• Collaboration: Work cross-functionally with photonic designers, chemists, biologists, and machine learning engineers.
• Foundry Transfer: Work with semiconductor vendor and foundry partners to transfer designs and processes for manufacturing at wafer scale.

Skills

Cleanroom experience

Electron-beam lithography

Photolithography

RIE/ICP dry etch

BOE wet etch

Thin-film deposition

Metrology & characterization

SEM

AFM

Ellipsometry

Education

M.S. or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field

Tools

RIE/ICP equipment

ALD systems

CVD/PECVD/evap/sputtering

Nanofabrication tooling

Job description

Pumpkinseed is seeking a PhD-level fabrication scientist to scale single-molecule nanophotonic sensors from research to wafer-scale manufacturing in Palo Alto, California. You will own end-to-end lithography, etch, and thin-film processes and drive high-yield, CMOS-compatible production.

You'll collaborate with photonics designers, chemists, biologists, and ML engineers to align device capabilities with system requirements and transfer processes to foundries for large-scale production.