Sr Principal Electrical Engineer

Job Description

We are seeking a Powertrain Design Engineer to lead the development of test vehicles supporting our high-current BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) and low-voltage GaN power process and product portfolios. This role owns test vehicle definition, circuit and layout design, and characterization planning from concept through silicon bring-up, working closely with process development, product engineering, and applications teams. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience designing power devices and circuits at both the IC and module level, and is fluent in the power topologies these test vehicles are ultimately intended to support.

• Define, design, and drive execution of test vehicles (TVs) for high-current BCD and LV GaN process technologies, including device test structures, scaled power stages, and full-function demonstration circuits.
• Translate process capability targets and product roadmap requirements into test vehicle architecture and specifications.
• Design and simulate power stage circuits (e.g., synchronous buck/boost, multiphase, half-bridge/DrMOS, gate drivers) used to validate device performance under realistic switching and thermal conditions.
• Select and characterize power devices (LDMOS, trench MOSFETs, LV GaN HEMTs, Schottky/sync rectifiers) for inclusion in test structures, working with device/process engineering on layout-dependent tradeoffs (RDS(ON), Qg, breakdown voltage, SOA).
• Perform IC-level layout and design for test structures, including parasitic-aware layout for switch nodes, current sensing, and gate drive paths.
• Extend designs to module/package level as needed - co-design of power stages with packaging, magnetics, and PCB layout for evaluation boards and system-level test vehicles.
• Develop test and characterization plans covering DC para metrics, switching performance, efficiency, transient response, and voltage/current stress margins (including switch-node ringing and abs-max validation).
• Lead or support silicon bring-up, debug, and correlation of measured results against simulation and design targets.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with process integration, reliability, product/applications engineering, and test engineering to close the loop from process split data to product-ready specifications.
• Document design methodology, test vehicle results, and characterization data to support technology qualification and product development decisions.

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Microelectronics, or related field.
• 10+ years of hands-on design experience in power semiconductor devices, analog/power ICs, or power electronics.
• Strong working knowledge of power conversion topologies (e.g., buck, boost, multiphase/interleaved converters, half-bridge, DrMOS/Intelli-Phase-style architectures) and how topology choices drive device requirements.
• Solid understanding of power device physics and tradeoffs across BCD process technologies and GaN (particularly low-voltage GaN HEMTs) — including RDS(ON), switching loss, gate charge, breakdown/avalanche behavior, and thermal characteristics.
• Demonstrated experience designing test structures or test chips/vehicles for process technology development (not just product design) — comfortable defining what a process node needs to prove out.
• IC-level design and layout experience, including parasitic-sensitive layout practices for high-current switching nodes.
• Experience taking designs beyond the die level to module, package, or board level (e.g., power module co-design, evaluation board layout, thermal/electrical co-design).
• Proficiency with circuit simulation tools (SPICE or equivalent) and familiarity with device/TCAD simulation concepts.
• Ability to interpret and specify absolute maximum ratings, transient voltage tolerance, and protection thresholds (OVP/UVP/OCP/OTP) relevant to power stage reliability.
• Strong lab skills: bring-up, debug, and characterization using oscilloscopes, curve tracers, power analyzers, and thermal imaging.

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose, To Make Our Lives Easier. With a global team of over 21,000 engineers and problem solvers in more than 30 countries, we offer the opportunity to work on world-leading technology for Automotive, Industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT, shaping a safer, healthier, greener, and smarter future.

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