RF Engineer II - Integrated Circuits (1403)

Summary

Intermediate proficiency with experience realizing a design from theory to tested hardware. Performs routine application of electromagnetic simulation tools, RF measurements and good grounding on large level system concepts. Advanced theoretical understanding or experience designing, manufacturing and testing hardware. Assignments may range from RF circuit design, antenna design, RF amplifier circuits and test measurement of complex RF systems.  Assignments should be completed with minimal supervision

Duties and Responsibilities

• Performs routine application of electromagnetic simulation tools, RF measurements and good grounding on large level system concepts on projects through completion. 


• Performs RF testing on individual or other's designs and prototypes.


• Expected to work within a team and take advice from more senior engineers to implement design changes and run tests in the lab.


• Experience with designing and evaluating electromagnetic solutions using tools such as Altium, CST and other RF simulation tools and apply to the job.


• Understand RF equipment settings and capable of determining automation processes using software such as LabVIEW, MATLAB, or Python. 


• Capable of conveying manufacturing intricacies impacting RF, radar and electromagnetic components. These components include custom RFIC and packaging.


• Work in cross-functional teams. These other disciplines may include mechanical engineering, quality, inspection and analytical labs to ensure product maturation and quality.


• Experience selecting RF components from vendors to compare and contrast fundamental metrics such as return loss, insertion loss, decibel and linear for amplification, saturation points (P1 dB), frequency range, noise figure and others.

You Must Have

• U.S. Citizenship to obtain and maintain DOE Clearance


• Bachelor of Science degree from an ABET accredited Electrical Engineering program or Physics program, or related field of study


• Two or more years of relevant experience

We Value

• Masters degree specializing in Antenna, RF, RFIC, or electromagnetics preferred


• RFIC design and simulation tools


• Direct involvement in development of advanced RFIC circuits and systems using GaAs and GaAn semiconductor processes from IC Foundries.


• Advanced degree with an emphasis on RFIC and CMOS RF design experience


• RF Front End Module (FEM) and Power Amplifier (PA) design and evaluation 


• Own and lead lab experiments to identify root cause of RF/Functionality related FEM and PA performance issues. 


• The engineer is expected to understand the following concepts in theory and have experience in at least one of the following areas to applying practice:


• RF Propagation, transmission lines


• Understands Smith Chart use and can perform simple matching using one


• PCB schematic and layout tools


• Antenna, Antenna arrays, RFIDs, phase array design and test


• RF test equipment, such as spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, power meter, 


• LCR meter, oscilloscope, time domain reflectometer (TDR)


• Load Pull systems 


• Transceiver design 


• Software defined radio prototyping and GNU Radio and/or other SDR tools


• Digital signal processing


• Signal conversion:  DAC, ADC, PLL, DDS Filters 


• RF amplifiers: low noise, gain, power, Wireless power


• Wireless power


• Radar and remote sensing


• Communication protocols


• Familiarity with High Power, >100W pulse radar system testing 


• Familiarity with RF hardware such as directional couplers, isolators, splitters, attenuators


• Packaging and testing for airborne and space RF systems


• Ability to write/modify custom scrips for automation including LabView, Python or other scripting languages

FMT2021