Associate Research Scientist; PREP

PREP Research Associate – CHIPS Funded Project

General Description

PREP Research Associate, CHIPS Funded Project. This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and thus requires that such institutions be the recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas.

Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

Research

Title:

Physicist (CHIPS Project:
Accurate Cure Kinetics, Stress, Mechanical Properties and Warpage Measurements for Next-Generation Microelectronics Packaging under Device Relevant Conditions)

U.S. Citizen Preferred

The work will entail: The candidate will join a multi-disciplinary team of scientists working to advance the current state-of-the-art in advanced metrologies to characterize, test, model, and validate the structure-processing-property relationships of polymeric materials and material interfaces for heterogeneous integration in semiconductor packaging. The candidate will plan and conduct research on the use of Brillouin, low-frequency Raman (LFR) and fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) microscopy to study the local mechanical properties of materials relevant to semiconductor packaging applications.

This position will be a one-year appointment.

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Plan, design, and characterize the performance of advanced microscopes based on Brillouin scattering, Raman scattering and fluorescence lifetimes.
• Characterize the mechanical properties of complex polymeric materials using these microscopy methods.
• Collaborate with a multi-disciplinary team working to characterize, test, and model polymeric materials relevant to semiconductor packaging applications.
• Participate in the characterization of the mechanical properties of candidate Research Grade Test Materials.
• Publish results in refereed scientific journals and present results at scientific conferences and meetings.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in physics, chemistry, materials science, or related discipline.
• Background in Raman and Brillouin light scattering techniques required, including expertise in instrumentation development.
• Background in fluorescence lifetime microscopy required, including experimental experience in both time and frequency domain methods.
• Experience in the use of microscopy techniques for the measurement of viscoelastic properties of polymeric materials.
• Strong data analysis and Python programming skills for processing large datasets, fitting models, and producing publication-quality figures.
• Track record of technical writing (peer-reviewed papers, technical reports) and communicating results to mixed audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to lead projects, mentor students/postdocs, and coordinate cross-functional collaborations.
• Ability to work on-site in a laboratory setting in Gaithersburg, MD and meet all safety/training requirements.

Position

Description:

The Intelligent Systems Division at NIST is investigating the performance of 3D machine vision systems for various manufacturing applications. The research will focus on integrating 3D bin-picking vision systems with robotic arms and conducting experiments to evaluate their performance. This work will support the development of new metrics and standards for these systems.

Duties:

• Integrate robot arms and commercial bin-picking systems into the NIST/ISD bin-picking testbed.
• Program collaborative robot arms for conducting various tasks and experiments.
• Research the effects of various factors (part color, part surface properties, bin color, bin depth, ratio of part size to bin size, part distribution in a bin) on bin picking performance (e.g., cycle time, pose uncertainty).
• Collect data from various 3D imaging systems.
• Design and develop 3D printed artifacts and optimize 3D printer parameters for improved quality…