AFE Test & Integration Engineer
San Diego, CA, USA
Synchron is developing a high-channel-count neural recording ASIC in partnership with an external IC design house which owns design, simulation, test development, and fabrication. This role owns independent, in-house validation of the fabricated chip's analog front end: building the bench setup, bringing up first silicon, and characterizing it against spec using our own equipment and protocols — not the partner's self-reported data. It's a strong first industrial role for someone with real analog front-end fundamentals from school or research who wants hands-on bench and systems experience on an implantable neural interface program, mentored day-to-day by our senior ASIC design lead.
Key Responsibilities
- Bench test setup: build and maintain the fixtures and instrumentation used to bring up and characterize first silicon.
- Test plans & protocols: co-develop bench test plans and sample-size rationale with the ASIC Design & Verification Engineer, written to the same rigor our design verification work already follows.
- Independent characterization: measure the fabricated ASIC's analog front end against spec — noise floor, CMRR, power consumption, channel-to-channel crosstalk, input-referred noise — per channel and across the array.
- System integration testing: support integration testing of the ASIC into the full signal chain alongside the electrode array and lead.
- Documentation: produce characterization and integration test reports suitable to feed directly into our verification and design history file records.
- Growth: grow into the primary owner of the AFE characterization test suite as the program scales from first silicon through qualification.
Required Skills and Qualifications
- Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, or a related field, with academic, thesis, or research experience in analog front-end / biopotential amplifier design — e.g., chopper-stabilized or low-noise instrumentation amplifiers, or ADC architectures such as SAR or delta-sigma converters.
- Experience: No professional experience required — strong fundamentals from coursework, thesis, or internship work are what matter most for this role. We will teach the medical-device and program-specific context.
- Technical Skills:
- Familiarity with electrode-tissue interface concepts (electrode-electrolyte impedance, EIS, Randles-cell-style modeling) from coursework or lab work.
- Hands-on bench skills: oscilloscopes, source-measure units, signal generators, and basic noise-measurement technique.
- Comfort with Python or MATLAB for data analysis and automating bench measurements.
Salary
Base salary between $100,000 and $135,000 per year and stock option or restricted stock units grants.