Senior RF / Electromagnetic (EM) Modeling Engineer ,On-Chip LC Tanks and Passives

Senior RF / Electromagnetic (EM) Modeling Engineer ,On-Chip LC Tanks and Passives

Location: Mountain View, CA Area (Onsite or Hybrid )

The Role

You will model the on-chip inductors, capacitors and transformers that form LC tanks, and give circuit designers models they can trust. The LC tanks set frequency and noise in oscillators, PLLs and RF front ends, so model accuracy directly shapes circuit performance.

What You Will Do

• Build and simulate EM models of on-chip passives, including spiral inductors, transformers, baluns, T-coils, varactors and MOM/MIM capacitors, using Ansys HFSS and IC-focused EM solvers such as Cadence EMX, Ansys RaptorX or Keysight Momentum.
• Extract inductance, quality factor (Q), self-resonant frequency, coupling and S-parameters across frequency, then build lumped (pi-model) and broadband models for circuit simulation.
• Work with circuit designers on LC-VCOs, PLLs, LNAs and resonators, including the effect of tank Q on phase noise and of capacitor banks on tuning range.
• Model coupling and parasitics from surrounding layout: routing, metal fill, seal ring, substrate and package or bumps.
• Correlate models with measured silicon using VNA and probe-station data, including de-embedding.
• Set up metal-stack technology files and automate parameter sweeps in Python or similar.

Required Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering (RF, microwave or electromagnetics), or BS with equivalent experience; 5+ years of industry work.
• Hands-on HFSS for on-chip (integrated circuit) structures, plus at least one IC EM solver: EMX, RaptorX, Momentum, Sonnet or Clarity 3D.
• Solid understanding of LC tanks and their uses in oscillators, PLLs, matching networks and LNAs.
• Using EM models in circuit simulation with Cadence Virtuoso and Spectre / SpectreRF, or Keysight ADS.
• Fluency with S-parameters, Smith charts and de-embedding.

Preferred Qualifications

• CMOS, FinFET or SiGe processes; mmWave frequencies (28 GHz and above).
• Foundry or PDK experience building inductor and capacitor models.
• Lab measurement with network analyzers and probe stations.
• Cryogenic RF electronics or superconducting resonator modeling.