PhD / Senior Technical Specialist – Power Electronics & Patent Support ($100/hr +)

Job Title: Technical Specialist – Power Electronics & Patent Support

Overview

We are seeking a Technical Specialist with strong expertise in power electronics and mixed-signal IC design to support a patent attorney in preparing and prosecuting patent applications. This role bridges deep technical understanding and clear written communication, ensuring that claim sets, detailed descriptions, and drawings accurately reflect the underlying technology.

• Technical Support for Patent Drafting
• Analyze engineering design documents, simulation results, schematics, and internal presentations to extract key technical concepts.
• Propose alternative embodiments, variations, and use cases that broaden or better support potential claim scope.
• Help identify distinguishing features over conventional circuits and control schemes based on provided prior art.
• Claim Review & Refinement
• Review draft independent and dependent claims for technical accuracy, consistency, and completeness.
• Suggest clarifications to functional language, block names, and signal relationships to avoid ambiguity or technical errors.
• Verify that claim terminology aligns with the actual circuit operation, timing relationships, and control algorithms.
• Specification & Detailed Description
• Draft or co-draft technical sections of the specification, including block descriptions, signal definitions, control loops, timing relationships, and algorithmic flows.
• Translate circuit-level behavior (e.g., state transitions, timing diagrams, control logic) into clear narrative and stepwise methods.
• Propose additional embodiments, modes of operation, and corner cases that may be desirable to include in the written description.
• Figures & Drawings
• Define and sketch figure concepts, including system block diagrams, detailed circuit blocks, timing diagrams, flowcharts, and performance graphs.
• Work with drafting resources or tools (e.g., Visio, PowerPoint, schematic capture exports) to refine clean, patent-quality figures.
• Ensure consistency between the figures, claim language, and specification (signal names, reference numerals, block labels).
• Attorney Collaboration
• Participate in regular working sessions with the patent attorney to walk through circuits and control schemes at a detailed level.
• Explain complex technical behavior in simple terms to support legal strategy decisions.
• Assist in preparing responses to inventor questions and internal reviews about technical aspects of the application.
• Prior Art & Technical Differentiation (Support Role)
• Read and summarize technical aspects of cited prior-art references for the attorney.
• Highlight similarities and differences between prior art and the disclosed designs at a technical block or timing level (without providing legal conclusions).

• Core Domain Expertise
• Strong background in power electronics and analog/mixed-signal integrated circuits.
• Hands-on experience with switch-mode power supplies (e.g., buck, boost, buck-boost converters) and associated control techniques.
• Familiarity with synchronous rectification, gate-driver design, and timing/control issues such as dead time, shoot-through, efficiency, and ringing.
• Circuit & System-Level Understanding
• Proficiency in reading and interpreting schematics, block diagrams, and timing diagrams.
• Solid understanding of control loops (e.g., analog/digital control, comparator-based feedback, cycle-by-cycle control), current sensing, and protection mechanisms (over-current, over-voltage, thermal).
• Comfort with digital logic blocks involved in power control (e.g., counters, state machines, digital delay lines, programmable registers).
• Tools & Modeling
• Experience with circuit simulation tools (e.g., SPICE, Spectre, LTspice, SIMetrix, or similar) to verify behavior and understand waveforms.
• Familiarity with common EDA tools or schematic/layout environments (Cadence, Mentor, Synopsys, Altium, etc.) is a plus.
• Ability to generate and annotate timing waveforms and performance plots from simulation or measured data.
• Documentation & Communication
• Excellent written English and the ability to describe circuits, behaviors, and algorithms precisely and unambiguously.
• Comfortable creating structured technical write-ups, including definitions, numbered steps, and consistent terminology.
• Ability to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical team members (e.g., engineers and lawyers).

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 3 years of relevant experience in power electronics, analog/mixed-signal IC design, or power management ICs (industry or advanced research).
• Prior experience collaborating on patent applications, invention disclosures, or technical documentation is strongly preferred but not strictly required if the candidate is eager to learn.

• Strong attention to detail and comfort working with precise terminology and consistent naming.
• Methodical thinking style, with the ability to break complex systems into clear functional blocks and operational steps.
• Interest in intellectual property and a willingness to learn basic patent-drafting concepts and conventions