Defect Equipment Engineer

Samsung Electronics•Austin, TX

1d•$76,000 - $145,000•Onsite

About The Position

This Engineer supports equipment health enhancement, defect control, and variation reduction work in a high-volume, 24x7 manufacturing environment to achieve tool-level baseline goals and maximize overall yield.

Requirements

Requires a Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Chemical, Mechanical Engineering, Material Science, Chemistry, Physics, or related technical fields.
5+ years of semiconductor engineering experience, with a heavy focus on equipment defect monitoring, tool baseline reduction, and hardware troubleshooting preferred.
Direct experience working at or closely with major Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers (e.g., ASML, AMAT, Lam Research) is strongly preferred, bringing advanced knowledge of tool hardware architectures, subsystems, and vendor-specific defect signatures.
Strong fundamental understanding of underlying equipment physics, including vacuum systems, plasma generation, RF physics, airflow dynamics, turbulence, and heat transfer, to accurately model and root-cause hardware-driven defectivity.
Strong proficiency in advanced non-patterned and patterned wafer inspection/review tools (e.g., KLA Surfscan, eDR, or equivalent inline metrology systems) is highly preferred
Working knowledge of Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Design of Experiments (DOE) methodologies for tool matching, FDC optimization, and specification setting.

Responsibilities

Drives tool defect performance by analyzing Non-Product Wafer (NPW) data to eliminate "high fliers," lower baseline defectivity, and minimize tool-to-tool variation across the fleet.
Performs advanced data analysis, drawing direct correlations between NPW defect data and Fault Detection and Control (FDC) sensor data to optimize equipment specifications and prevent excursions.
Continuously correlates production wafer defect data with NPW signatures to ensure NPW monitoring methodologies accurately reflect actual production defect health.
Conducts hands-on investigations inside the cleanroom (FAB) to trace defect sources directly to internal tool components, gas lines, hardware, or environmental factors.
Oversees equipment defect performance across all major functional modules, including Photo, CVD, Etch, Metal, Diffusion, Clean, Implant, and CMP.
Reduce cleanroom environmental defects, ensuring ambient conditions and mini-environments do not compromise tool or wafer cleanliness. Humidity, airflow, etc.