Product Failure Analysis Engineer

Altera Corporation; San Jose, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 149,000 - 216,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Incentive opportunities

Job summary

Altera seeks an experienced Failure Analysis Engineer to lead root‑cause analysis of yield, reliability and customer returns on FPGA devices using non‑destructive fault isolation techniques. The role requires coordinating with Design, Foundry and Reliability teams to pinpoint fault modes and drive corrective actions.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in semiconductor failure analysis, strong experience with LVP, EMMI, OBIRCH, and layout/design tools, plus a background in DFT and fault

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Eng, Materials Science, Physics, Mechanical Engineering or a related field.
• 8+ years of semiconductor failure analysis experience.
• 8+ years of experience with FA tools such as Laser Voltage Probing (LVP), Photo Emission EMMI, Optical Beam Induced Resistance Change (OBIRCH).
• 8+ years of experience with DFT and logic fault localization knowledge.
• 8+ years of experience driving investigations to root‑cause and to drive yield/reliability improvements.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Product/Yield/Reliability Engineers to drive electrical verification, and fault isolation during product development, yield improvement and reliability risk assessments
• Support debug and fault isolation on customer returns
• Define, execute and interpret fault isolation methods as appropriate to non‑destructively isolate a failure using commercial testers and fault isolation tools
• Proficient in independently using Emission microscopes, Laser Voltage Probing and OBIRCH tools
• Experienced with layout, schematic and design analysis tools
• Collaborate with physical failure analysis team on defect modes

Skills

Failure analysis

Layout & design knowledge

DFT knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field

Tools

LVP (Laser Voltage Probing)

EMMI (Emission microscopy)

OBIRCH

Virtuoso

Avalon

SysNav

Teradyne Ultraflex

Job description

Job Details: Job Description:

About Altera

At Altera™, our independence as the world’s largest pure‑play FPGA solutions provider gives us the focus, speed, and agility to innovate without compromise. With more than four decades of industry‑leading FPGA expertise, our singular mission is to deliver the programmable technologies that help customers differentiate, innovate, and scale across rapidly evolving markets like AI, cloud, networking, and edge. As an independent company, we move faster, invest deeper, and partner more closely—empowering our teams to drive breakthrough innovation and shape the future of the FPGA industry.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced semiconductor Failure Analysis Engineer responsible for debug and root cause analysis of yield, reliability and customer returns on FPGA’s using advanced foundry process technologies. This role requires partnering with IC and Package design, Foundry Engineering, Product and manufacturing Engineering, and Reliability teams for driving systematic fault isolation and debug. In this role, focus will be on non‑destructive electrical fault isolation by debugging electrical test responses and circuit/layout analysis. Experience in using fault isolation using Photo Emission/Infrared microscopy (EMMI), Laser Voltage Probing (LVP) and Optical Beam Induced Resistance Change (OBIRCH) and other fault isolation tools is required.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Product/Yield/Reliability Engineers to drive electrical verification, and fault isolation during product development, yield improvement and reliability risk assessments
• Support debug and fault isolation on customer returns
• Define, execute and interpret fault isolation methods as appropriate to non‑destructively isolate a failure using commercial testers and fault isolation tools
• Proficient in independently using Emission microscopes, Laser Voltage Probing and OBIRCH tools
• Experienced with layout, schematic and design analysis tools
• Collaborate with physical failure analysis team on defect modes

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Eng, Materials Science, Physics, Mechanical Engineering or a related field
• 8+ years of experience in semiconductor failure analysis
• 8+ years of experience with Layout & Design tools (Virtuoso, Avalon, SysNav, etc)
• 8+ years of experience with FA tools such as Laser Voltage Probing (LVP), Photo Emission EMMI, Optical Beam Induced Resistance Change (OBIRCH)
• 8+ years of experience with DFT and logic fault localization knowledge.
• 8+ years of experience driving investigations to root‑cause and to drive yield/reliability improvements.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in semiconductor failure analysis
• Understanding of FPGA architecture
• Understanding design debug features (DFT)
• Experience with using Teradyne Ultraflex tester
• Semiconductor packaging failure analysis.

Job Type: Regular

Shift: Shift 1 (United States of America)

Primary Location: San Jose, California, United States

Additional Locations:

Salary Range The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. $149,100 - $215,925 USD

• We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.

We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position.

Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.

About Altera

Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy‑to‑use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end‑to‑end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.