Research Scientist - Microelectronics

Position Overview
TAP Engineering is seeking a Research Scientist - Microelectronics to support leading-edge research and engineering associated with the physical sciences, including quantum computing, advanced computing systems, additive manufacturing, photonics, advanced materials, and microelectronics. The Microelectronics Research Scientist will support applied research focused on the design, inspection, analysis, manufacturing, packaging, and test of state-of-the-art (SOTA) semiconductors.

Qualified candidates will have the ability to envision and articulate new areas of research, exploration, and avenues for novel approaches. This is a dynamic environment and requires team members to be comfortable with leading efforts, providing guidance, and transitioning those efforts for future development, while still monitoring and engaging in ongoing progress. The ability to function as a technical leader (non-supervisory) is strongly desired as is the ability to articulate concepts and work with clarity and professionalism.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical support and expertise in the area of SOTA microelectronics engineering and research, including developing, testing and documenting experiments.
• Assimilate and integrate technical inputs from performers and analyze technical deliverables and reports.
• Assist the government’s technical element in the management of the microelectronics research portfolio.
• Conduct technical writing and materials for presentation.
• Conduct independent review and summaries of related technical literature and emerging technologies and participate in technical exchanges and workshops related to program technical areas.
• Develop and document testing methodology and protocols, ensuring they align with program technology components.
• Coordinate, align, and schedule technology development tasks and perform continuous analysis of technical progress in comparison to planned cost and schedule.
• Perform technical and programmatic risk analysis/review and tracking.

Required Qualifications
Qualified candidates will have experience in two or more of the following (the capacity to understand and determine current limitations as well as future improvements is preferred):

• Microelectronics Supply Chain: microelectronics hardware verification/security/trust/assurance, vendor selection, qualification, audit, procurement (i.e. domestic foundry interaction)
• Wafer-Level Design: digital, RF and/or mixed signal circuit design (schematic, layout), modeling & simulation of key circuit parameters (power, speed, timing, signal integrity, thermal, reliability, etc.)
• Wafer-Level Fabrication & Test: circuit patterning (i.e. ion implantation), wafer-level packaging (i.e. FOWLP), test/inspection (electrical test & debug, microscopy, metallurgy, failure analysis, repair), back-end processing (ink, grind/polish, dice, sort, inspect, etc.)
• Chip-Scale Design: digital, RF and/or mixed signal device packaging design/layout (2D-3D, chiplet/UCIe), substrate/interposer design (HDI, HDBU, EMIB), chip attach (epoxy, solder), chip interconnect (chiplet, flipchip, wire/ribbon bonding), modeling & simulation (power, speed, timing, signal integrity, thermal, structural, reliability)
• Chip-Scale Fabrication & Test: substrate/interposer fabrication, chip attach (epoxy, solder), chip interconnect (flipchip, wire/ribbon bonding), underfill, lidding, balling, tinning/forming, electrical test & debug, inspection & metrology failure analysis
• Hardware Programming: FPGA (i.e. Verilog, VHDL), Programming (Linux command line/scripting, Python, Java, and C++)

The research team includes research scientists at multiple levels, ranging from Junior to Principal depending upon education and experience:

• Level 1 - No Degree with 6+ years of…