Principal DFT Engineer

We are looking for a Principal HW DFT Engineer who will architect, implement, and validate in-vehicle networking devices as part of NXP’s Automotive grade products. You will be responsible for advanced test strategies and implementation, verification and validation of pre/post tapeout of DFT features, overall test coverage improvements, and work closely with RTL and physical team on DFT timing constraints and closures.

Main Job Tasks and Responsibilities:

Architecture & Strategy: Define and implement advanced DFT strategies, including Scan Architecture, JTAG, Memory BIST (MBIST), and Logic BIST (LBIST)

Implementation & Verification: Lead the integration of digital subsystems, perform scan insertion, and generate ATPG (Automatic Test Pattern Generation) patterns while ensuring high fault coverage.

Silicon Support: Drive post-silicon validation and debug activities to root cause failures and improve manufacturing test efficiency.

Collaboration: Coordinate with physical design and test engineering teams to ensure timing closure and that test patterns are operational immediately upon silicon arrival.

Minimum Required Qualifications Education: B.S./M.S. Electrical/Computer Engineering (or similar degrees)

Experience: Typically requires 10+ years of industry experience in SoC DFT implementation, verification, static timing closure, test coverage analysis and improvement, and silicon bring-up on ATE

Tool Expertise: Proficiency with industry-standard EDA tools from Mentor Graphics/Siemens (Tessent), Cadence, or Synopsys

Technical Skills:

DFT - Scan insertion and architecture, ATPG: Proficiency in generating test vectors to detect manufacturing faults like stuck-at, transition, and advanced faults, Built-In Self-Test (BIST): Integration of Memory BIST (MBIST) for embedded SRAM/ROM and Logic BIST (LBIST) for autonomous logic testing, Boundary Scan & JTAG, Test Compression: Implementing techniques to reduce test data volume and application time, which is critical for large System-on-Chip (SoC) designs.

Hardware Design & Implementation - HDL Proficiency: Strong command of Verilog or SystemVerilog for modifying RTL to insert test logic and writing test wrappers. Timing & Constraints: Knowledge of Static Timing Analysis (STA) and creating DFT-specific timing constraints (SDC files) to ensure test logic does not degrade functional performance.

Verification & Debug - Simulation: Conducting gate-level simulations (GLS) and verifying DFT logic for correctness before fabrication. Post-Silicon Debug: Analyzing silicon data from Automated Test Equipment (ATE) to diagnose failures and improve manufacturing yield.

Software & Tool Proficiency - EDA Tool Suites: Mastery of industry-standard tools such as Synopsys TestMAX/DFT Compiler, Mentor Graphics Tessent, and Cadence Modus. Scripting & Automation: Expertise in Tcl, Python, or Perl to automate test insertion flows, run simulations, and parse coverage reports.

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