Physical Design Engineer

Job Description

Physical Design Engineer - Texas Instruments

About the Role: Join Texas Instruments Connectivity engineering team as a Physical Design Engineer, where you'll play a critical role in delivering high-performance wireless connectivity solutions that power next-generation IoT, automotive, and industrial applications.

What You'll Do

Physical Implementation

• Floorplanning: Create and optimize chip floorplans to meet performance, power, and area targets
• Placement & Routing: Execute placement optimization and detailed routing for complex SoC designs
• Clock Tree Synthesis (CTS): Design and implement robust clock distribution networks with minimal skew and jitter
• Power Planning: Develop comprehensive power grid strategies including power ring, stripes, and via insertion
• Flow and tool improvements: Work with EDA vendors, TI internal EDA teams to improve flow recipes, implement automations and improve design QoR
  
  

Design Verification & Analysis

• Physical Verification: Execute and resolve DRC (Design Rule Check) and LVS (Layout vs. Schematic) violations
• Power management: Execute and verify Lower power checks to ensure power management integrity
• Low power implementation: Conduct dynamic and static power analysis to meet power budgets
• Signal Integrity: Address crosstalk, IR drop, and electromigration issues
  
  

Design Optimization

• Performance Optimization: Fine-tune design to meet frequency and timing requirements
• Area Optimization: Minimize die size while maintaining functionality and performance
• Yield Enhancement: Implement design-for-manufacturing (DFM) techniques
  
  

Collaboration & Documentation

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with front-end designers, verification teams, and package engineers
• Documentation: Create and maintain comprehensive design documentation and flow methodologies
• Mentorship: Provide guidance to junior engineers and interns
  
  

Growth Opportunities

• Work on both established connectivity platforms and breakthrough wireless technologies
• Contribute to multiple tape-outs annually across different process nodes
• Influence next-generation connectivity architecture decisions
• Mentorship opportunities with junior engineers and cross-functional collaboration
  
  

Why This Role

• Direct impact on TI's wireless connectivity portfolio performance
• Exposure to diverse wireless standards and emerging technologies
• Opportunity to work with state-of-the-art EDA tools and methodologies
• Be part of innovation initiatives including new wireless technologies for TI
  
  

Technical Environment

• Multiple process technology nodes and design rule sets
• Complex mixed-signal connectivity SoC designs
• Automated flow development and optimization
  
  

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's / Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
• 2-5 years of hands-on experience in physical design implementation
• >1 year of hands-on experience on SoC level physical design
• Proficiency with Cadence EDA tools:
• Innovus: Place and route, timing optimization
• Conformal Low Power: For power mangement signoff checks
• PVS: Physical verification
• Tempus: Not a must have but good to have a working idea of basic timing debugs
• Experience with scripting languages (TCL, Perl, Python, Shell)

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's / Master's degree in relevant field
• Familiarity with mixed-signal and analog layout considerations
• Understanding of package and system-level effects
  
  

Low Power Management Expertise

• Power Gating Techniques: Implementation of fine-grain and coarse-grain power gating strategies
• Multi-Voltage Domain Design: Experience with voltage islands, level shifters, and isolation cells
• Clock Gating: Advanced clock gating techniques for dynamic power reduction
• Retention Strategies: Design and implementation of retention flip-flops and memory retention
• Power State Management: Understanding of different power modes (active, idle, sleep, deep sleep)
• Always-On Domain Design: Implementation of always-on power domains and wake-up circuitry
  
  

Technical Skills

• Physical Design Flow: Complete P&R flow from netlist to GDSII
• Timing Closure: Multi-corner multi-mode timing analysis and optimization
• Power Management: Low-power design techniques including power gating and voltage islands
• Problem Solving: Debug complex timing, power, CTS and physical verification issues
  
  

Flow Improvements & Automation

• Design Flow Optimization: Analyze and enhance existing physical design flows for improved efficiency and quality
• Automation Development: Create and maintain automated scripts and tools to streamline repetitive tasks
• Methodology Enhancement: Develop standardized design methodologies and best practices for team adoption
• Quality Metrics: Implement and track key performance indicators (KPIs) for design quality and turnaround time
• Flow Integration: Integrate new EDA tools and technologies into existing design flows
• Runtime Optimization: Optimize tool runtimes and resource utilization for faster design closure
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Ensure design flows work seamlessly across different compute environments
• Tool Evaluation: Assess new EDA tools and methodologies for potential adoption
• Process Documentation: Create comprehensive flow documentation and user guides
• Continuous Improvement: Identify bottlenecks and implement solutions to improve overall design productivity
  
  

Work Environment

• Collaborative team environment with cross-functional projects
• Access to state-of-the-art EDA tools and compute resources
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge semiconductor technologies
• Multiple platform executions leading to broader learnings and professional development opportunities
  
  

About Us

Why TI

• Engineer your future. We empower our employees to truly own their career and development. Come collaborate with some of the smartest people in the world to shape the future of electronics.
• We're different by design. Diverse backgrounds and perspectives are what push innovation forward and what make TI stronger. We value each and every voice, and look forward to hearing yours. Meet the people of TI
• Benefits that benefit you. We offer competitive pay and benefits designed to help you and your family live your best life. Your well-being is important to us.
  
  

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated (Nasdaq: TXN) is a global semiconductor company that designs, manufactures and sells analog and embedded processing chips for markets such as industrial, automotive, data center, personal electronics and communications equipment. At our core, we have a passion to create a better world by making electronics more affordable through semiconductors. This passion is alive today as each generation of innovation builds upon the last to make our technology more reliable, more affordable and lower power, making it possible for semiconductors to go into electronics everywhere. Learn more at TI.com .

Texas Instruments is an equal opportunity employer and supports a diverse, inclusive work environment.

If you are interested in this position, please apply to this requisition.

About The Team

TI does not make recruiting or hiring decisions based on citizenship, immigration status or national origin. However, if TI determines that information access or export control restrictions based upon applicable laws and regulations would prohibit you from working in this position without first obtaining an export license, TI expressly reserves the right not to seek such a license for you and either offer you a different position that does not require an export license or decline to move forward with your employment.