RFIC Design Engineer

Apple; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple’s Wireless RFIC team is seeking an RFIC Design Engineer to develop high‑performance transceivers for mass‑market wireless SoCs. You will collaborate across RF/Analog, digital, and FW teams to push wireless technology forward and translate system requirements into IC-level implementations.

You will design LNAs, PAs, PLL/VCO, mixers, and calibration methods, with emphasis on silicon characterization, debugging, and robust verification in a fast‑paced environment.

Qualifications

• BS + 3+ years in RF/analog IC design.
• Understanding of noise, linearity, mismatch, stability, and other analog impairments.
• Experience with Cadence Virtuoso, Spectre RF, MATLAB, EM simulation.
• Expertise in analog, mixed-signal and RF circuit design (LNAs, PAs, PLL/VCO, DCO, LOGEN, mixers).
• Experience in silicon characterization and debugging.

Skills

Analog design concepts

RFIC design

Analytical thinking

Cross-functional teamwork

Education

BS in Electrical Engineering

MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering (preferred)

Tools

Cadence Virtuoso

Spectre RF

MATLAB

EM simulation tools (HFSS/EMX)

Job description

**Role Number:** 200623898-3543

Summary

Do you have a passion for invention and self-challenge? Do you thrive with pushing the limits of what’s considered feasible? As part of an outstanding `team, you’ll craft sophisticated, groundbreaking projects that deliver more performance in our products than ever before. You’ll work across fields to transform improved hardware elements into a single, coordinated design. Join us, and you’ll help us innovate new technologies that continually outperform the previous iterations! By collaborating with other product development groups across Apple, you’ll push the industry boundaries of what wireless systems can do and improve the product experience for our customers worldwide.

Description

The wireless RFIC team architects, designs, and validates radio transceivers integrated into wireless SoCs. Our wireless organization is responsible for all aspects of wireless silicon development that transform the user experience at the product level, all of which is driven by an outstanding vertically integrated engineering team spanning RF/Analog architecture and design, Systems/PHY/MAC architecture and design, VLSI/RTL design and integration, Emulation, Design Verification, Test and Validation and FW/SW engineering! As an RFIC Design Engineer within the Wireless Radio team, you will be at the center of a wireless SoC design group, giving to Apple’s groundbreaking wireless connectivity solutions into hundreds of millions of products.

Minimum Qualifications

• + BS and 3 + years of relevant industry experience.
• + Understanding of analog design concepts such as noise analysis, linearity, mismatch, stability, and other analog impairments.
• + Experienced in Cadence Virtuoso, Spectre RF, Matlab, EM simulation (EMX, HFSS), and similar tools.
• + Expertise in analog, mixed-signal, and RF circuit design. This includes the design of LNAs, PAs, PLL/VCO/DCO/LOGEN blocks, mixers, baseband filters and amplifiers, data converters, and calibration methods associated with such high-performance wireless systems.
• + Experienced in Silicon characterization and debugging.

Preferred Qualifications

• + MSEE and PhD plus relevant industry experience.
• + Deep experience in crafting and bringing wireless transceivers into mass production is a plus.
• + Familiarity with various RF transceiver architectures and their trade-offs and system specifications, and ability to work with system architects to translate system requirements into circuit requirements at the IC level.
• + Understanding of the impact of modulation type on radio architecture and requirements.
• + Proven capability to work with digital design groups for an optimum partition between digital and analog domains.
• + Familiarity with mixed-signal mode verification methodology (SystemVerilog, AMS, Nanotime).

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics.