What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior RF Test & PCB Design Engineer position at Prodapt North America?
Prodapt ASIC Services (formerly Innovative Logic) provides end-to-end SoC/ASIC, FPGA, and embedded software solutions. Their design services cover the complete lifecycle from RTL to GDSII, covering domains like 3nm node physical design, UVM verification, DFT, and silicon bring-up for 5G, AI, and IoT.
We are looking for Senior RF Test & PCB Design Engineer in San Jose, CA and its a 5 days onsite position
Roles & Responsibilities:
- PCB Development: Lead the schematic entry, component selection, and layout routing optimization for complex RF evaluation boards using Cadence Allegro.
- Simulation & Analysis: Perform Signal Integrity (SI) and Power Integrity (PI) simulations. Utilize Ansys HFSS for EM modeling and impedance matching to ensure optimal RF performance.
- Hardware Bring-up: Own the board bring-up process, including debugging hardware issues and validating performance against design specifications.
- RF Characterization: Utilize lab equipment (VNAs, Spectrum Analyzers, Signal Generators) to perform various RF measurements and verify simulation-to-measurement correlations. Implement Machine Learning (ML) techniques to analyze large datasets and identify performance trends or anomalies.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with RFIC Design and System Engineering teams to define board requirements and provide feedback on chip-level performance.
- Documentation & Data Analysis: Maintain detailed design documentations and test reports for internal and external stakeholders. Collect, review and analyze test data. Requirements
MUST HAVES:
- Extensive actual PCB and layout design experience (not just as a reviewer) using Cadence Allegro/OrCAD tool. High speed or mmWave experience preferred.
- Materials Knowledge: Deep understanding of PCB stack-ups, dielectric materials (e.g., Rogers, Megtron), and manufacturing constraints for high-frequency PCB designs.
- Expertise in SI/PI and EM simulations.
Required Skills:
- Education: BS or MS in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field.
- Experience: 5 years of hands-on experience in RF PCB design and hardware development.
- Tools: Expert-level proficiency in Cadence Allegro/OrCAD and Ansys HFSS (or equivalent EM simulation tools).
- RF Fundamentals: Strong knowledge of RF theory, including S-parameters, transmission line theory, matching networks, and de-embedding techniques.
- Lab Expertise: Extensive experience with RF test equipment (VNAs, Spectrum Analyzers, Oscilloscopes) and high-speed probing techniques.
- Materials Knowledge: Deep understanding of PCB stack-ups, dielectric materials (e.g., Rogers, Megtron), and manufacturing constraints for high-frequency PCB designs. Desirable Skills (Nice to Have)
- Automation: Proficiency in Python or C# for developing automated test suites to increase characterization throughput.
- Data Science for RF: Experience applying AI/ML models for predictive maintenance of test setups or for signal classification.
- Wafer-Level Testing: Experience with manual or semi-automated RF probe stations for on-wafer die characterization.