Semiconductor Laser Design Engineer

Ayo Semiconductor; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Ayo Electronics is an early-stage startup focusing on photonic compute. We seek a semiconductor laser engineer to lead on-chip laser and SOA design, epitaxy optimization, and integration with AI-enabled systems.

This role requires collaboration across photonics, systems, and EDA teams to push devices from concept to prototype. The ideal candidate has hands-on fabrication or tape-out experience with semiconductor lasers or SOAs and is eager to explore advanced packaging and integration

Qualifications

• PhD or MS with 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience designing, taping out or fabricating, and testing integrated semiconductor lasers, LEDs and/or SOAs.
• Proficiency with Python and commercial simulation tools.

Responsibilities

• Simulate/design III-V epitaxies optimized for our application
• Design test structures for measurement of electronic and optical properties of fabricated epitaxial wafers
• Design, tape out and test integrated lasers and SOAs
• Work with systems, electronic, and AI teams to design prototype chips
• Mentor & guide junior photonics engineers and photonics test engineers

Skills

Integrated laser design

Python proficiency

Device testing

Education

PhD or MS with 5+ years experience

Tools

Ansys/Lumerical

Tidy3D

PhotonDesign

Job description

Ayo is a venture-backed early-stage startup that will radically re-define how humanity performs compute for AI. Our photonic processors will provide orders of magnitude improvement in speed and power efficiency in comparison to conventional digital compute platforms by taking advantage of the natural parallelism, speed and energy efficiency of light.

We are seeking a semiconductor laser engineer to serve as a core team member who will be among the first employees of the company. The engineer will drive the optimization of both active III-V epitaxy and active device design (on-chip lasers and SOAs). The ideal candidate has taped out or fabricated working semiconductor laser or SOA devices, has a deep understanding of the underlying physics, and has a desire to explore the limits of what can be built with current fabrication technologies. This will be a key role within the photonics team, requiring close collaboration with other team members and engineering functions.

Responsibilities:

• Simulate/design III-V epitaxies optimized for our application
• Design test structures for measurement of electronic and optical properties of fabricated epitaxial wafers
• Design, tape out and test integrated lasers and SOAs
• Work with systems, electronic, and AI teams to design prototype chips
• Mentor & guide junior photonics engineers and photonics test engineers

Qualifications:

• PhD or MS with 5+ years experience
• Experience designing, taping out or fabricating, and testing integrated semiconductor lasers, LEDs and/or SOAs
• Experience using commercial simulation tools (such as Ansys/Lumerical, Tidy3D, PhotonDesign or similar)
• Proficiency with Python

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing multi-quantum well and/or quantum dot structures
• Experience designing and laying out photonic integrated circuits
• Experience probing/testing photonic integrated circuits
• Experience with advanced packaging of photonic integrated circuits such as hybrid or flip-chip integration

Contact:

• Mike Gould ([e-mail])