Senior Foundry Engineer, Silicon Technology

Asteralabs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Asteralabs is seeking a Senior Foundry Engineer in San Jose, California to drive improvements in silicon technology and yield outcomes for advanced semiconductor products. This role will involve direct collaboration with teams and foundry partners to resolve critical production issues.

The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of experience in the semiconductor field and be adept at working with silicon and process integration. The position emphasizes a strong background in device physics and semiconductor manufacturing processes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in semiconductor device engineering.
• Working knowledge of semiconductor process flows.
• Familiarity with SPICE models and silicon-to-model correlation.

Responsibilities

• Analyze process inline data and silicon test data.
• Support product tapeouts and review from a PDK perspective.
• Track PDK versions and model updates.

Skills

Silicon technology

Yield improvement

Device physics

Semiconductor process flows

Education

B.S or M.S in Electrical Engineering

Material Science

Semiconductor Engineering

Job description

Astera Labs (NASDAQ: ALAB) provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions. By collaborating with hyperscalers and ecosystem partners, Astera Labs enables organizations to unlock the full potential of modern AI. Astera Labs’ Intelligent Connectivity Platform integrates CXL®, Ethernet, NVLink, PCIe®, and UALink™ semiconductor-based technologies with the company’s COSMOS software suite to unify diverse components into cohesive, flexible systems that deliver end-to-end scale-up, and scale-out connectivity. The company’s custom connectivity solutions business complements its standards-based portfolio, enabling customers to deploy tailored architectures to meet their unique infrastructure requirements.

Job Description

We are seeking a Senior Foundry Engineer, Silicon Technology to support foundry engagement, silicon-to-model correlation, tapeout readiness, and yield improvement for advanced semiconductor products. This person will work closely with internal design, CAD layout, product engineering, test, reliability, operations teams and external foundry partners to identify risks, assess product impact, and drive timely resolution of process, PDK, model, DRC/DFM, and silicon-related issues.

Responsibilities

• Silicon, process and yield correlation
  • Analyze process inline data, silicon test data, process drift and process correlation data
  • Fine tune processes to optimize power, performance and yield
  • Help identify process related contributors to parametric drift, yield loss, leakage, reliability risk
  • Work with foundry and internal teams to investigate yield issues and process excursions
  • Perform layout analysis where needed to understand process sensitivity, failures
• Tapeout and DFM support
  • Support product tapeouts, tapeout readiness reviews from a PDK, DRC/DFM, device model and reliability perspective
  • Run or coordinate DFM checks on products and summarize findings for design and layout teams
  • Coordinate between foundry and physical design teams to disposition waivers taking performance, leakage, manufacturability and reliability in mind
  • Document known PDK, model, DRC, DFM or process risks before tapeout
  • Maintain an internal PDK qualification database across foundries and process nodes to reduce tapeout risk from unnoticed PDK or model changes
• Foundry and PDK support
  • Support technical interactions with foundry partners on PDK, device models, process assumptions, design rules, DRC/DFM decks and reliability collateral
  • Track PDK versions, model updates, DRC/DFM runset changes, and foundry signoff recommendations
  • Compare PDK changes across versions and summarize potential design, layout, model or signoff impact
• Device model and circuit model evaluation
  • Validate model behavior across voltage bias, temperature, process corners, and relevant operating conditions
  • Compare silicon measurements against SPICE/model predictions and help identify model gaps

Basic Qualifications

• B.S or M.S in Electrical Engineering, Material science, Semiconductor engineering or a related technical field
• 5+ years of experience in semiconductor device engineering, foundry interface, silicon technology, process integration, yield/process correlation

Required Experience

• Working knowledge of semiconductor process flows, device physics, manufacturability, reliability and yield drivers
• Experience supporting tapeouts, PDK validation, models, DRC/DFM, silicon bring up
• Experience analyzing silicon, wafer-level, process monitors, product test, characterization, or reliability data
• Prior experience at a foundry, IDM, fabless semiconductor company or a PDK/enablement organization
• Familiarity with SPICE models, process corners, device behavior, layout effects and silicon-to-model correlation
• Ability to communicate technical issues clearly across design, CAD, layout, test, products engineering and external foundries
• Familiarity with using TSMC as a foundry

Preferred Experience

• Experience with advanced FinFET, gate-all-around/nanosheet technologies and BiCMOS technologies
• Experience with SRAM, analog/mixed signal, RF, Serdes, low power design constraints
• Experience benchmarking foundry nodes using spice models on representative circuits
• Experience using foundry models to simulate junction breakdowns, SOA, ESD, aging, reliability or device operating limits

We know that creativity and innovation happen more often when teams include diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, and we actively encourage everyone with relevant experience to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities.