Senior or Optical Coating Process Engineer

Senior or Staff Optical Coating Process Engineer

Santa Rosa, CA, United States

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Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• Have in-depth knowledge of reactive magnetron sputtering processes and their relationship to thin-film growth processes sufficient to understand their effects on optical, structural and mechanical properties of multilayer thin films.
• Have sufficient analytical knowledge of automated thin film vacuum sputter deposition chamber operation to support Process change decisions regarding;
  Programmable Logic Controllers, Agility HMI automation, process control interfaces, process control setup, laser monitoring, Manufacturing execution system and database interface.
• Have in depth knowledge and experience with vacuum equipment including, pumps, valves, feedthroughs, Mass flow valves, pressure gauges, magnetron cathodes, heaters and heat control systems.
• Understand Optical thin-film design theory and how to use Optical thin-film design codes for characterizing manufacturing errors. Working knowledge of basic design building blocks, effective indices and the various applications of symmetric design components.
• Analytical knowledge of automated Optical monitoring systems used for accurate layer thickness control of coatings with as many as 400 layers and synchronous control of deposition process.
• Ability to interpret and analyze data from radiometric fiber optic measurement system utilizing grin lenses and tunable laser sources.
• Work collaboratively with engineers in a team environment where project actions are interdependent and ideas may be challenged to achieve the best outcome for all.
• Make daily decisions on process, product and equipment problems and their impact on production costs and on-time delivery commitments.
• Develop new tools and processes for manufacturing new products and integrate them into the manufacturing systems.
• Interact closely with the Manufacturing team to monitor and clarify procedures.
• Support Planning and Manufacturing to optimize product flow, throughput and on-time delivery goals.
• Perform continuous process improvement and development of tools to assist engineering and manufacturing in evaluation of processes, diagnosis of equipment failures, product and business. Support decisions using measurable statistics.
• Maintain and optimize predictive tools to maximize run yields and minimize downtime.
• Perform product qualifications for new products or for specified process changes.
• Write or modify work instructions for tasks associated with coating processes, measurement instrumentation and software tools utilized by technicians.
• Participate in major development efforts driven by Management and work with Senior engineers to identify how to best support the effort.

Communicate well with outside vendors and customers, fostering good working relationships.

• BS degree or higher in Engineering, Physics or related field
• 5 years of professional optical coating process engineering in manufacturing.

• In-depth knowledge of reactive magnetron sputter deposition processes, thin film growth processes and their interrelationships
• In-depth knowledge of thin film design theory, thin film design code development and product application.
• General knowledge of statistical software packages, interpretation of statistics and an ability to clearly communicate statistical results to others.
• Experience decreasing/eliminating process variations using problem solving methodologies to understand root causes, confirm hypotheses, implement resolutions, and optimize improvement
• General knowledge of optical thin film metrology for telecommunications filters
• Familiarity with Matlab/Visual Basic/LabVIEW/Python codes for equipment control and data analysis and proficient in one of these languages.
• Have proficient general computer skills. Examples include experience with commercial thin film software and other programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

• Shift and on-call work may be required, particularly where manufacturing/production equipment is in continual 24-hour operation.

• Able to lift and move up to 25 lbs without…