Principal Engineer - Design

Company Description

Microchip Technology Inc. is a leading provider of embedded control applications. Our product portfolio comprises general purpose and specialized 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers, 32-bit microprocessors, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) products, a broad spectrum of high-performance linear, mixed-signal, power management, thermal management, radio frequency (RF), timing, safety, security, wired connectivity and wireless connectivity devices, as well as serial Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), Serial Flash memories, Parallel Flash memories, and serial Static Random Access Memory (SRAM). We also license Flash-IP solutions that are incorporated in a broad range of products.

Job Description

The candidate will be an expert with 32Gbps SERDES (Serializer/Deserializer) based protocols, and possess experience with PCIe Rev.3, 4 and 5 protocol; and be able to use FPGAs to create systems level designs to bring up and debug such systems in the lab.

Main duties/responsibilities:

• Architecture definition and FPGA design creation utilizing all hardware features and IP cores targeted to existing and future Microchip products.
• System and FPGA design must exercise all the use models targeted for each product mimicking end applications in a customer setting.
• Develop high level system and product level validation plans for new and existing silicon products and project, execute per plan. Review dependencies, estimate effort and identify and communicate risk.
• Understand hardware architectures, define use models and execute / oversee system level design implementations required to utilize the silicon features.
• Be not only an effective contributor but also the technical expert related to protocols using high speed serial interfaces in a cross-functional team-oriented environment.
• Write high quality code in Verilog, VHDL and C code. Maintain existing code. Support regression and re-use.
• Learn new system designs and validation methodologies. Understand FPGA architectures.
• Act as the authoritative expert in knowledge domain area(s), be able to mentor senior and junior engineers and provide technical guidance. 
• Collaborate with cross-functional managers/teams to identify and resolve inter-dependencies.
• Define and improve process followed in the department; follow quality metrics and assess per project.
• Must be willing to participate in morning time India Standard Time zone meetings, when and if required.

Job Requirements

Minimum Qualifications:

1. MS EE/CE with 8+ years of digital FPGA design and validation experience

2. Knowledge of FPGA architectures is a must

3. Possess an in-depth understanding of hardware architectures, system level IC design implementation, and knowledge of how to create end use scenarios

4. Strong technical background in FPGA prototype emulation, and debug

5. Strong technical background in silicon validation, failure analysis and debug

6. Excellent Board level debug capabilities in lab environment: hands-on troubleshooting skills for digital logic and analog circuit on PCB’s using oscilloscopes, digital analyzers, protocol exercisers and analyzers, integrated logic analyzers (e.g. Synopsys Identify, Xilinx Chipscope, Altera Signalscope, Lattice Reveal)

7. Design with RTL coding in Verilog and VHDL is a must

8. Experience using Simulation (ModelSim) and Synthesis (Synplicity) tools

9. Good knowledge of validating system level designs based on embedded processors and peripherals such as SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, PCI and USB     

10. Familiarity with the bring up and on-board debug of 32Gbps SERDES

11. Hands-on systems level design and debug experience with following high-speed serial communications protocols (must: PHY, PCS and Data link layer of the OSI protocol stack; desirable: transaction and upper layers of the OSI protocol):

• PCIe Gen3/4/5

12. Experience with the PCI-SIG Compliance Tests

• Protocol Testing
• PCI-CV Testing
• PHY Testing

13. Experience with the PCIe Lab Equipment

• PCIe Analyzer
• PCIe Exerciser

14. Strong commitment to quality and customer satisfaction

15. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English

16. Able to travel 0-2 times annually if required.

Desirable Experience: 

1. Familiarity with any high speed SERDES controllers that make use of 32Gbps PCS, PMA:

• Ethernet 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 25, 40, 50, 100, 200, 400 Gbps, including familiarity with (U)S(X)GMII
• Interlaken (4.25 to 412.5 Gbps)
• OTN OTUx (2.66 to 131 Gbps), or SONET/SDH OC3/12/48/192
• (E,X,XGS,NG)-PON or 100G-EPON
• Video interfaces SDI-SD/HD/3GHD and SDI (5.94, 11.88Gbps), DisplayPort (6.48 to 25.92Gbps), HDMI (3.96 to 42.66 Gbps)
• JESD204C (6.375 to 32 Gbps)

2. Design and debug experience for any of the below high-speed serial communications protocols is a plus, but not necessary:

• Hybrid Memory Cube
• CPRI Rate 1 to 10+
• Serial Rapid IO 4.1
• Firewire
• Litefast
• USB 3.0
• SATA I, II, III
• Fiber Channel
• CoaXpress

3. C, C++ or object-oriented programming skills.

4. Knowledge and experience in embedded firmware development.

5. Good understanding of embedded firmware/software development process.

6. Knowledge and experience in JTAG, SVF and 1532 standards and STAPL programming.

7. Knowledge of PERL/TCL scripting.