Lead CMP Process Engineer

Primary Duties and Responsibilities 

• Control, optimize, and develop substrate CMP manufacturing processes.  Contribute to ideas, concepts, approaches, and engineering solutions.   

• Focus on specific technological elements with the goals of improving yields, throughput and meeting the requirements of customers and R&D contracts.   

• Ensure that each technological step is properly documented, reviewed, validated, approved and provides feedback to the R&D Center that will help improve manufacturing processes, improve yield and lower cost. 

• Use statistical tools such as SPC, DOE or similar for process development and data analysis. 

• Adhere to project timelines and effectively communicates project progress and challenges. 

• Provide technical and engineering support to the manufacturing team. Instruct and train process operators and technicians.  

• Establish the technological process steps of commercial substrate CMP. Ensure that each operational process step is performed in accordance with our standard procedures. 

• Perform process and equipment troubleshooting, problem identification, and corrective action activities. 

• Assist with planning, scheduling, and resource allocation for all CMP related items. 

• Participate in R&D Programs by organizing and carrying out project activities.  Adhere to the project timelines and milestones 

• Summarize experimental results in formal or informal written and oral reports.  Participate in R&D meetings by providing reports, plans, meeting minutes, action items and other requested documentation. 

• Perform characterization of technological processes using statistical tools to determine process reliability and bottlenecks.  Analyze process/product failure modes. 

• Characterize the CMP processes to determine process reliability and “bottlenecks”.  Analyze process/product failure modes and provides feedback for process optimization. 

• Contribute to the work of the quality assurance team by providing expertise in process characterization. Serve as a resource to the QA personnel with respect to the characterization techniques, equipment, and procedures. 

• Actively participate in characterization of substrates.  Analyze the obtained characterization data to establish fundamental trends and correlations and to develop scientifically sound conclusions. 

• Use the results of characterization to establish factors that affect wafer quality and make recommendations for technology optimization. 

• Communicate experimental and analytical results to the SiC substrate team in a timely manner to accelerate technological progression. 

Education and Experience 

• BS or MS (preferred) in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemistry, or related STEM disciplines. 

• 2 to 5 years of hands-on experience with process control and development in an industrial manufacturing setting. Experience requirements scale with degree relevance and level. 

• Hands-on experience with substrate polishing or lapping processes. Experience polishing GaAs, InP, Si, SiC, or other semiconductor materials is preferred. 

• Experience analyzing and interpreting characterization data for substrate surface or bevel shapes. Hands-on measurement experience is preferred. 

• Experience with statistical analysis tools such as JMP, Minitab, or R. 

• General knowledge of semiconductor materials, technological processes used in their manufacturing and methods of materials characterization.  

• Demonstrated ability to achieve results independently or working with others. 

• Ability to recommend and implement improvements. 

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills. 

Skills and Other Responsibilities 

• Knowledge of substrate polishing and lapping processes. 

• Ability to manage multiple projects while adhering to strict project timelines. 

• Effectively manages multiple priorities involving external and internal priorities. 

• Fluency with programs and tools used for data collection, analysis, modeling and plotting, such as Excel or similar.  

• Excels in a cross-organizational, cross-cultural, global team environment. 

• Handles special assignments promptly and professionally. 

• Sets a high standard of ethics, professionalism, leadership, and competency. 

• Due to ITAR compliance, this position requires candidates to be a U.S. Citizen, Permanent Resident Alien, or Protected Individual per 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)