Silicon Photonics Design Engineer

We can't predict what the future holds, but we know Texas Instruments will have a part in shaping it. 
Kilby Labs is the advanced R&D and product development support organization within TI chartered to define and develop new and innovative technologies and solutions in collaboration with business units and customers.

As a member of Kilby Labs you’ll have the chance to interact with many product groups and functions, work with an interdisciplinary team, bridge from lab to fab to develop technologies, enable new markets, and scale-up for volume products.

About the Position

Kilby Labs is seeking a highly motivated Silicon Photonics Design Engineer to design silicon photonics solutions for advanced data communications applications and establish methodologies, tools, and automation flows for silicon photonics design. In this role, you will be responsible for the design and layout of transmit and receive Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). The role includes working closely with system architecture, packaging, validation, and test engineering team members to ensure successful prototyping, product development, and launch. The role requires a creative problem-solver with a strong background in electromagnetic design fundamentals who can develop unique, breakthrough technologies that leap-frog the state-of-the-art and contribute across various aspects of a project.

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:

• Design and develop passive and active PIC components such as advanced passive waveguide circuit elements, and high-speed active components such as modulators and Ge-based waveguide detectors for high performance (>200Gbps/ln) datacom applications, while driving continuous improvements in power efficiency and area.


• Work closely with systems and design team members to understand system specifications and translate them into circuit level requirements.


• Collaborate with layout team to translate the designs into DRC clean layouts that meet specifications while guaranteeing high yields.


• Engage with systems and packaging teams to architect, design and simulate advanced packaging solutions for high bandwidth and high-density interfaces for datacom applications.


• Drive test methodology and collaborate with characterization and product engineering teams to enable product validation and production ramp.


• Collaborate with technology development team to define process requirements and specifications for new silicon photonics platforms.


• Participate in R&D to develop next generation photonics technologies, drive IP development.


• Present work and findings to internal and external stakeholders through technical documents and design reviews.

Minimum Requirements:

• Master’s or PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, Photonics, Optical Communications or related field.


• Experience with high-speed modulator and detector design and/or passive photonic component design and photonic integrated circuit design.


• Strong understanding of PIC circuit design and layout, experience contributing to or leading PIC tapeouts.


• Experience with electromagnetic and photonic simulators such as HFSS, Lumerical, Tidy3D, PhotonDesign, Optiwave, COMSOL.


• Proficiency with IC design tools (Cadence Virtuoso, Maestro, LayoutXL) as well as photonic design enablement tools such as Synopsys, Luceda, GDSFactory.


• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team, with strong verbal and written communication skills.


• Ideal candidate must excel at promoting new ideas, building collaborative relationships and working across organizations to work on common goals.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Electronic-Photonic Design Automation (EPDA) flows, co-simulating photonic circuits with CMOS driver/TIA circuits in a unified environment.


• Experience using scripted layout frameworks to automate complex photonic routing.


• Experience with package and board design tools such as Synopsys Altium and Cadence Allegro.


• Experience with hands-on silicon photonics volume test and wafer-level test automation


• Experience with technical approaches for next-gen (beyond 200 Gb/s/lane) silicon photonics including non-silicon materials


• Understanding of the end applications related optical networking, including pluggable modules and co-packaged optics.