Staff Photolithography Process Engineer

Skywater•Austin, TX

11d

About The Position

SkyWater Technology is seeking a Staff Photolithography Process Engineer with more than four years of experience in photolithography process development and sustaining high-volume manufacturing. The role leads process characterization and development initiatives and works collaboratively with cross-functional fab teams. The engineer develops, optimizes, characterizes, and sustains photolithography processes for high-volume manufacturing. The position owns production lithography processes and drives improvements in yield, defectivity, critical dimension (CD), overlay, throughput, and cost. It also develops process-control strategies and metrology and monitoring plans to maintain process stability and capability. The role uses statistical process control (SPC), process data analysis, structured problem-solving, and design of experiments (DOE) to identify process trends, variation, defects, patterning failures, CD variation, overlay errors, and yield losses. The engineer collaborates with equipment, integration, and other engineering teams to troubleshoot issues, qualify new chemicals, materials, and process changes, and improve manufacturing capability. The position leads projects, applies data-mining and programming techniques, communicates data-driven recommendations, and manages multiple commitments with strong technical ownership in a high-volume semiconductor manufacturing environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in engineering or a related technical field.
More than 4 years of photolithography process engineering experience in a high-volume mass-production environment.
Applied knowledge of photolithography processes, process optimization, overlay and alignment improvement, and critical dimension (CD) variation reduction.
Experience optimizing processes on TEL tracks and ASML steppers and scanners, including I-line, KrF, and dry ArF.
Experience setting up and optimizing resist processes, with and without TARCs or BARCs, on existing fab tools.
Experience with overlay on ARCHER tools and CD job writing on NANOSEM and HITACHI SEMs.

Nice To Haves

Strong understanding of semiconductor photolithography processes, equipment, and manufacturing operations.
Hands-on experience developing and characterizing lithography processes, including process windows and overlay margins.
Demonstrated proficiency in statistical process control (SPC), design of experiments (DOE), data mining, and process data analysis.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a meticulous, data-driven approach to process improvement.
Experience identifying process variation, reducing defectivity, improving yield, and addressing process marginalities in a production environment.
Strong communication, project management, and cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities independently.

Responsibilities

Develop, optimize, characterize, and sustain photolithography processes for high-volume manufacturing.
Own and sustain production lithography processes, driving continuous improvements in yield, defectivity, critical dimension (CD), overlay, throughput, and cost.
Develop process-control strategies and recommend metrology and monitoring plans to maintain process stability and capability.
Monitor inline and end-of-line statistical process control (SPC) charts to identify trends, excursions, and abnormal process behavior, and implement corrective and preventive actions.
Analyze process data to identify sources of variation, process marginalities, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
Investigate lithography-related defects, patterning failures, CD variation, overlay errors, and yield losses using structured problem-solving, statistical analysis, and design of experiments (DOE).
Collaborate with equipment, integration, and cross-functional engineering teams to troubleshoot process and equipment issues and improve manufacturing capability.
Develop new lithography processes and execute qualification plans for new chemicals, materials, and process changes.
Lead engineering projects to close process performance gaps, achieve milestones, and deliver measurable improvements in yield, productivity, and cost.
Apply data mining, programming, scripting, and statistical analysis techniques to improve process understanding and engineering efficiency.
Communicate technical findings and present data-driven recommendations while building working relationships across engineering, manufacturing, and support organizations.
Manage multiple projects independently, demonstrate technical ownership, and deliver commitments in a high-volume semiconductor manufacturing environment.