Principal Materials and Failure Analysis Engineer; SIMS

Position: Principal Materials and Failure Analysis Engineer (SIMS)
** Primary

Duties & Responsibilities *
* + Lead the establishment of Coherent Sherman's SIMS laboratory, including capability definition, facility requirements, equipment selection, installation, qualification, and operational readiness.

+ Develop the strategic roadmap for SIMS characterization capabilities to support current and future semiconductor, photonics, and optoelectronic technologies across Coherent.

+ Direct and perform a SIMS Materials Analysis workflow including sample preparation, tool setup, data acquisition, interpretation, reporting, and method development, with emphasis on quality, efficiency, throughput, and on-time delivery.

+ Serve as the site Subject Matter Expert (SME) for SIMS analysis, providing technical leadership and guidance to manufacturing, epitaxy, R&D, quality, reliability, and product engineering organizations.

+ Define and implement laboratory workflows, analytical procedures, quality systems, calibration methodologies, maintenance plans, and operational best practices to ensure world-class analytical performance and data integrity.

+ Lead the installation, acceptance testing, qualification, and ongoing optimization of SIMS instrumentation and supporting laboratory infrastructure.

+ Partner with Equipment Engineering and Facilities teams to maximize tool reliability, uptime, and analytical performance through effective maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, and upgrade activities.

+ Perform and coordinate advanced materials characterization and failure analysis using SIMS, SEM, FIB, TEM, EDX, optical microscopy, and other analytical techniques as required to solve complex technical problems.

+ Lead complex analytical investigations and root cause analyses to identify material, process, and device-related failure mechanisms and drive corrective actions.

+ Prepare and publish technical reports tailored to specific audiences and effectively communicate analytical findings, conclusions, and recommendations to engineers, management, and customers as needed.

+ Work closely with cross-functional teams to support new product introduction, technology development, yield improvement, quality enhancement, reliability investigations, and cost reduction initiatives.

+ Develop, qualify, and implement new SIMS analytical methods, sample preparation techniques, and measurement capabilities for emerging material systems, epitaxial structures, advanced devices, and next-generation technologies.

+ Drive continuous improvement of analytical processes, laboratory operations, measurement capability, throughput, automation, and overall operational efficiency.

+ Collaborate with global Coherent materials characterization teams to transfer best practices, standardize methodologies, and establish Sherman as a key SIMS and materials characterization resource within the organization.

+ Build and maintain productive relationships with internal customers, global Coherent facilities, equipment suppliers, third-party laboratories, academic institutions, and industry experts to accelerate capability development and technology adoption.

+ Establish and maintain analytical standards, procedures, calibration methodologies, and best practices to ensure high-quality, repeatable, and reproducible measurements.

+ Track material and device failure modes, maintain analytical databases and failure mode libraries, and provide periodic trend analysis and recommendations to management and engineering teams.

+ Identify developmental opportunities for the Materials and Failure Analysis team; create training materials and mentor engineers, technicians, and interns to build organizational capability.

+ Lead multiple complex projects simultaneously while balancing customer priorities, business needs, and laboratory objectives.

+ Support customer-facing technical discussions, audits, and presentations related to materials characterization, SIMS analysis, failure analysis, and technology development efforts.

** Education & Experience*
* Requires a minimum of:

+ Bachelor's degree with 9 years of related experience, OR

+ Master's degree with 7 years of related experience, OR

+ PhD with 4 years of related experience.

Experience should include materials characterization, semiconductor processing, failure analysis, thin-film technologies, epitaxial growth, or related fields. Experience supporting optoelectronic, photonic, or semiconductor manufacturing environments is preferred.

** Skills*
* + Advanced expertise with SIMS and/or TOF-SIMS characterization techniques.

+ Demonstrated experience performing dopant profiling, contamination analysis, depth profiling, and materials characterization of semiconductor and optoelectronic materials.

+

Experience with epitaxial growth technologies including MOCVD, MBE, sputtering, thin-film deposition, or related processes.

+ Strong understanding of semiconductor device physics, solid-state physics, materials science, and failure mechanisms.

+

Experience with advanced analytical techniques such as SEM, FIB, TEM, EDX, XPS,…