Research Assistant​/Associate in Micromanufacturing of Passive Wireless Components

Role:Research Assistant/Associate in RF and Experimental Characterisation of Microfabricated Electronic Devices

Grade and Salary:Grade 6 - £31,236 - £36,636 / Grade 7 - £37,694 - £47,389per annum

Contract Type:Full Time (1

FTE), Fixed Term for 4 Months

Holiday Entitlement:33 days annual leaveplus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday)

Applications are invited for a four-month Research Assistant/Associate position at Heriot-Watt University to support an interdisciplinary research programme developing highly miniaturised electronic systems for bio-inspired aerial platforms.

The work forms part of an ARIA-funded collaboration between Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh, bringing together expertise in microdevices, electronic systems, sensing, wireless technologies and bio-inspired engineering.

The successful applicant will focus primarily on the RF, high-frequency and experimental characterisation of externally fabricated microelectronic devices.

Device fabrication will be undertaken by specialist external facilities. The principal responsibility of the researcher will therefore be to develop appropriate electrical and RF measurement approaches, establish experimental test arrangements, characterise fabricated devices and analyse their performance.

The work will involve hands-on laboratory characterisation using high-frequency electronic test and measurement equipment, investigation of transient electrical behaviour, comparison of different device designs and fabrication variants, and support for the evaluation of device performance within the wider electronic and wireless system.

Because of the short duration of the appointment, we are particularly interested in candidates with strong practical experimental skills who can rapidly establish and troubleshoot measurement systems and work independently towards clearly defined project objectives.

The successful candidate will:

• Develop and implement experimental procedures for the electrical, RF and high-frequency characterisation of externally fabricated microelectronic devices.
• Design and establish appropriate laboratory measurement arrangements for evaluating device performance.
• Develop suitable experimental interfaces between microfabricated devices and electronic measurement equipment, including probes, test fixtures, PCB-based interfaces or equivalent approaches where required.
• Perform electrical and high-frequency measurements to assess device behaviour, signal characteristics, temporal response, repeatability and device-to-device variability.
• Acquire and analyse fast transient or pulsed electrical signals using appropriate measurement instrumentation.
• Select appropriate measurement bandwidths, probes, cabling and acquisition methods for reliable high-frequency characterisation.
• Investigate and minimise measurement artefacts associated with grounding, shielding, impedance, parasitic effects, noise and signal integrity.
• Characterise and compare different device designs and fabrication variants.
• Assess device reliability, repeatability and potential failure mechanisms.
• Use relevant laboratory instrumentation, which may include high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, signal generators, source-measure units, spectrum analysers, RF measurement equipment, probes, power supplies and related test instrumentation.
• Undertake optical or microscopic inspection of fabricated devices where appropriate and relate physical device characteristics to measured electrical performance.
• Support the characterisation of device performance within the wider miniaturised electronic and wireless system.
• Analyse experimental measurements using MATLAB, Python or equivalent computational tools.
• Co…