Powertrain Design Lead — High-Current GaN/BCD Testing

Renesas Electronics Corporation; San Jose, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Renesas Electronics is seeking a Powertrain Design Engineer to lead the development of test vehicles supporting high-current BCD and LV GaN processes. You will own test-vehicle definition, circuit and layout design, and characterization planning from concept through silicon bring-up, collaborating with process development, product engineering, and applications teams.

The role requires hands-on experience designing power devices and circuits at IC and module levels, with fluency in power

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Microelectronics, or related field.
• 10+ years hands-on design experience in power semiconductor devices, analog/power ICs, or power electronics.
• Strong knowledge of power conversion topologies (buck, boost, multiphase, half-bridge) and topology-driven device requirements.
• Solid understanding of power device physics and tradeoffs across BCD and GaN technologies.
• Proven experience designing test structures or test chips/vehicles for process development.
• IC-level design and parasitic-aware layout for high-current switching nodes.
• Experience extending designs to module/board level (power module co-design, evaluation boards).
• Proficiency with circuit simulation tools (SPICE) and TCAD concepts.
• Ability to interpret absolute max ratings, OVP/UVP/OCP/OTP thresholds for reliability.
• Strong lab skills: bring-up, debug, characterization with oscilloscopes, power analyzers.

Responsibilities

• Define, design, and drive execution of test vehicles for high-current BCD and LV GaN processes.
• Translate process targets and roadmap requirements into test vehicle specs.
• Design and simulate power stage circuits (buck/boost, multiphase, half-bridge) for device validation.
• Select and characterize power devices for test structures, considering RDS(ON), Qg, breakdown, SOA.
• Perform IC-level layout for test structures with parasitic awareness.
• Extend designs to module/package level with packaging, magnetics, PCB layout.
• Develop test plans covering DC, switching, efficiency, transient, and stress margins.
• Lead or support silicon bring-up, debug, and correlation to simulations.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to close the loop from process data to product specs.

Skills

Power electronics

Topologies

Device physics

IC/layout design

Test structures

SPICE/TCAD

Lab bring-up

Module/board integration

GaN LV experience

BCD process

Education

Bachelors or Masters in Electrical Engineering

Tools

SPICE

TCAD

Job description

Renesas Electronics is seeking a Powertrain Design Engineer to lead the development of test vehicles supporting high-current BCD and LV GaN processes. You will own test-vehicle definition, circuit and layout design, and characterization planning from concept through silicon bring-up, collaborating with process development, product engineering, and applications teams.

The role requires hands-on experience designing power devices and circuits at IC and module levels, with fluency in power