What are the responsibilities and job description for the Electrical Engineer-Hardware Platform Analysis position at netPolarity, Inc. (Saicon Consultants, Inc.)?
Job Title - Electrical Engineer :: Hardware Platform Analysis
Location - Austin, TX (on-site)
Role type - 12 Months Contract
Job Description:
Board Analysis:
- Analyze CPU/APU/GPU printed circuit boards (PCBs) from various vendors and systems, including notebooks, PC motherboards, and GPU cards.
- Identify electrical components and use reverse engineering techniques to understand board topology, architecture, power tree, and key interfaces.
Bill of Materials (BOM) Estimation:
- Collaborate with component engineers to create estimated BOM files, identifying components with unclear traits.
- Utilize the internal cost database to estimate board costs and compare with internal/customer designs.
PCB Stack-Up Analysis:
- Engage with PCB delamination shops for stack-up analysis, identifying high-speed interfaces and dielectric materials.
- Analyze vias, pad stacks, and trace geometries to determine competitor chip ball-out for key interfaces.
Power Instrumentation:
- Conduct power instrumentation on boards using standardized benchmarks to measure system efficiency.
- Measure incoming and output power across various ASIC rails
Reporting and Recommendations:
- Prepare reports highlighting cost differences and design/architecture features affecting cost.
- Provide recommendations for future competitive platform designs.
Candidate Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in electrical/Electronic Engineering.
- 3-5 years of experience in platform hardware design/analysis.
- Proficiency in high-speed digital interfaces (e.g., LPDDR, GDDR, PCIe, USB, DP, eDP, HDMI, SPI, eSPI).
- Experience with complex PCB and system assemblies using FFC/custom cables and interfaces.
- Familiarity with PCB BOM cost optimization through design simplification while maintaining functionality and reliability.
- Experience collaborating with silicon vendors and suppliers for cost-effective design solutions.
- Previous experience in competitive BOM analysis and benchmarking power/efficiency/performance is a plus