Metrology Engineer

About Xanadu

Xanadu’s mission is to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere.

At Xanadu, we are learners, innovators, researchers, collaborators and problem solvers. We are creating something that has never been built before. What we are doing is extremely hard, the classic moon shot. Few people in their life will be able to be a part of something like this, where if we are successful, the technologies we develop will solve some of the world’s most challenging problems, and literally change the world. And that is something to be excited about!

Your Role and Responsibilities

As an industry leader in photonic quantum computing, Xanadu takes hardware very seriously! In this role, you will work within the Fabrication Process Engineering team to deliver Xanadu’s photonic quantum computing hardware. With your deep technical expertise and strong experience in photonics and/or semiconductor metrology, you will be responsible for developing, improving and refining metrology protocols used to develop critical components of Xanadu’s quantum computing hardware.

Qualifications and Experience

• MS or PhD in materials science, physics, nanoengineering or related field
• ≥ 3 years of experience developing metrology flows for photonics and/or semiconductor chip fabrication
• Direct, first-hand experience with operation of and measurements on SEM, Spectroscopic Ellipsometer and AFM
• Strong understanding of ellipsometry and AFM tool principles and concepts, with additional recipe building and data modelling, optimizing data analysis routines, planning long term improvements in the models
• Experience working in a lab environment for integrated photonics and/or semiconductor products
• Demonstrated track record of method development, innovation and making improvements in the field of integrated photonics and/or semiconductor metrology
• Experience with material characterization for multiple material systems for semiconductors and photonics, such as silicon-based materials, dielectrics, crystalline electro-optic materials, III-Vs, etc.
• Strong critical thinking skills
• Demonstrated ability to tackle challenging problems and develop innovative solutions
• Excellent communication skills and strong sense of teamwork
• Ability to travel for work up to ~10% time

Preferred Qualifications and Experience

• ≥ 5 years of experience developing inline and/or offline metrology flows for photonics and/or semiconductor chip fabrication, as well as working with an MES
• Familiarity with several additional standard semiconductor and photonics metrology and failure analysis techniques, including some subset of: TEM, defect inspection, XRR/XRD, SIMS
• Experience coordinating with and managing external partners, including major semiconductor and photonics foundries, external metrology labs, and/or metrology tool vendors
• Experience operating and purchasing metrology tools, including performing best-of-breed evaluations, defining tool acceptance criteria, etc.
• Experience with metrology development for ultra-low loss photonic components
• Prior experience owning metrology and characterization tools
• Experience working in fabless companies

ValuesOur values are important. They are fundamental and lay the foundation for culture at Xanadu. Learn more about our values here.

This is for a new position. Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and internal benchmarks. The base salary range is 110,000 - 140,000 CAD. You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Responsibilities

• Operate metrology tools, including scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE)
• Perform advanced analysis of metrology data, including image analysis, accounting for noise to extract relevant metrics from the data
• Innovate and improve upon metrology protocols to achieve consistent and higher resolution measurements of key parameters, enable measurements of hard-to-measure features, etc, differentiating between samples with extremely small differences, while ensuring timely execution of routine
• Link the material property outputs from the metrology tools to critical device parameters (measured or computed) while accounting for measurement uncertainty and simulation gaps on a variety of different photonic device platforms.
• Justify process shifts and trend variances by anchoring data-driven insights in fundamental material science principles.
• Coordinate with internal software development and data analysis teams to improve data quality and enable quantitative modeling and decision making
• Innovate in the space of metrology and failure analysis
• Stay abreast of new developments in the fields of metrology and failure analysis, especially related to materials in photonics

Requirements

Basic Qualifications and Experience

• MS or PhD in materials science, physics, nanoengineering or related field
• ≥ 3 years of experience developing metrology flows for photonics and/or semiconductor chip fabrication
• Direct, first-hand experience with operation of and measurements on SEM, Spectroscopic Ellipsometer and AFM
• Strong understanding of ellipsometry and AFM tool principles and concepts, with additional recipe building and data modelling, optimizing data analysis routines, planning long term improvements in the models
• Experience working in a lab environment for integrated photonics and/or semiconductor products
• Demonstrated track record of method development, innovation and making improvements in the field of integrated photonics and/or semiconductor metrology
• Experience with material characterization for multiple material systems for semiconductors and photonics, such as silicon-based materials, dielectrics, crystalline electro-optic materials, III-Vs, etc.
• Strong critical thinking skills
• Demonstrated ability to tackle challenging problems and develop innovative solutions
• Excellent communication skills and strong sense of teamwork
• Ability to travel for work up to ~10% time