Physical Design Intern

Scope  

We’re looking for a Physical Design Intern to join our SoC team and help design, tape out ultra low power chips in advanced process nodes. In this role, you’ll gain hands-on experience with physical implementation tools, learn how to deliver best PPA designs, and work alongside experienced engineers to tape out ultra low power products. This internship is an excellent opportunity to apply what you’ve learned in class, explore industry-standard tools, and see how your work connects to the technology powering everyday devices. 

Responsibilities 

As a Physical Design Intern, you will:

• Support block-level physical implementation for SoC designs
• Assist with floorplanning, placement, clock tree synthesis (CTS), routing, and timing closure
• Run and analyze static timing analysis (STA) and help debug timing violations (setup/hold)
• Help perform power, signal integrity, and IR drop analysis under guidance
• Contribute to design rule check (DRC) and layout versus schematic (LVS) closure activities
• Develop and maintain scripts (e.g., Tcl, Python, Shell) to automate recurring tasks
• Document methods, results, and learnings; present progress to your mentor and team
• Collaborate with RTL, verification, and physical design engineers to resolve implementation issues

Basic Qualifications 

• Currently pursuing a B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
• Completed coursework in several of the following areas:
• Digital logic design
• VLSI design / physical design / ASIC design
• CMOS circuits
• Computer architecture (preferred)
• Familiarity with Verilog or VHDL and digital design concepts (timing, pipelining, clocking)
• Basic understanding of physical design concepts such as placement, routing, timing closure, clock trees, and power grid planning
• Comfortable working in a Linux/UNIX environment