Defect Reduction and Yield Improvement Engineer

The Advanced Technology Division invents the technological building blocks of future systems, with the Microsystems Prototyping Foundry (MPF) serving as a state-of-the-art semiconductor research and fabrication facility for advanced microelectronics, imagers, quantum devices, and more.

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Defect Reduction and Yield Improvement Engineer to join the Microsystems Prototyping Foundry team. This critical role is responsible for the detection, analysis, and characterization of defects in our advanced semiconductor prototyping processes. The successful candidate will be a key contributor to maintaining high yield and process control for revolutionary microelectronics and advanced devices supporting national security.

Responsibilities

• Develop and Implement Metrology Solutions: Design, qualify, and implement advanced defect inspection, review, and classification strategies for novel fabrication processes in a low-volume, high-mix R&D foundry environment.
• Defect Analysis and Root Cause Identification: Utilize advanced metrology tools to perform detailed defect characterization, root cause analysis, and failure analysis (FA) on in-process wafers and finished devices.
• Tool Ownership and Maintenance: Act as the technical owner for a variety of defect inspection and metrology equipment including automated defect inspection systems and defect review scanning electron microscopes.   Responsibilities include qualification, calibration, preventative maintenance oversight, and troubleshooting.
• Yield Improvement: Collaborate closely with process engineering, integration, and design teams to correlate defect data with process variations and electrical performance, driving continuous improvement in process control, tool performance, and final device yield.
• Statistical Process Control (SPC): Establish and maintain Statistical Process Control (SPC) for defect data, proactively monitoring trends, and responding to excursions when necessary.
• Data Analysis and Reporting: Develop automated data analysis routines (e.g., using JMP, Python, or MATLAB) to efficiently process large datasets, generate insightful reports, and communicate technical findings to cross-functional teams.
• Protocol Development: Write and maintain comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and metrology protocols to ensure measurement accuracy, repeatability, and consistency.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience:
  • 3+ years of hands-on experience in semiconductor fabrication, focusing on defect metrology, process control, or yield engineering.  
  • Experience in an R&D or advanced prototyping environment, specifically with non-standard or multiple semiconductor material platforms (e.g., Silicon, MEMS, Superconducting devices) is highly desirable
• Technical Expertise:
  • Demonstrated expertise in operating and maintaining advanced defect inspection and review tools (e.g., automated optical defect inspection, SEM for defect review/analysis).  
  • Demonstrated experience using defect management software platforms
  • Strong background in data analysis, statistical methods, and statistical process control (SPC).
  • Proficiency with data analysis software (e.g., JMP, MATLAB, Python) for large-scale data manipulation and visualization.
• Communication: Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to effectively present complex technical data and analysis to diverse engineering and research teams.

Recent Graduate Hiring Range: $116,400 -$140,000 
Experienced Hiring Range: $116,400- $182,200  

Disclaimer: MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including—but not limited to—the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate's experience, skills and education/training, internal equity considerations and applicable legal requirements. This range reflects base salary only and does not include additional forms of compensation or benefits.

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory, our exceptional career opportunities include many outstanding benefits to help you stay healthy, feel supported, and enjoy a fulfilling work-life balance. Benefits offered to employees include: 

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
• MIT-funded pension
• Matching 401K
• Paid leave (including vacation, sick, parental, military, etc.)
• Tuition reimbursement and continuing education programs
• Mentorship programs
• A range of work-life balance options
• ... and much more  
  
  

Please visit our Benefits page for more information. As an employee of MIT, you can also take advantage of other voluntary benefits, discounts and perks.

Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret level DoD security clearance.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, disability status, or genetic information; U.S. citizenship is required.

Requisition ID: 42587