Intern: RF Material Characterization

This internship at NXP's Package Innovation team focuses on RF Material Characterization for automotive radar applications. The intern will be involved in sample fabrication for electrical loss measurements of dielectric materials, optimizing techniques to reduce defects like surface roughness and delamination. Activities include collaborating with internal and external partners, conducting literature studies, designing samples, and performing various material characterization measurements to improve autonomous car radar performance.

Must Have

• Studying Material Sciences (Physics/Chemistry) at BSc, MSc level
• Basic understanding of semiconductors and electrical loss mechanisms in dielectric materials
• Passionate in hands-on, lab-oriented environment
• Pro-active attitude in problem-solving, planning and collaboration with other departments
• Detail oriented and drives for perfection with willingness to take ownership
• Strong analytical problem solving
• Effective oral and written communication and relation-skills with intercultural awareness
• Interfacing with internal departments at NXP and outside (suppliers, Radboud University) to collaborate on dielectric sample fabrication
• Literature study of parameters such as moisture content, material aging/oxidation, surface roughness
• Designing ground-signal-ground samples: dimensions, measurement frequency, thickness
• Optimization of sample fabrication technique to reduce/eliminate defects
• Design of Experiment to study effect of surface roughness, moisture content and sample aging/oxidation on dielectric loss
• Ionic analysis of chemical elements inside dielectric and die attach materials
• Measurements of thermal conductivity of die attach and liquid mold compound
• Stress-strain measurements of materials using tensile test machine
• Final report

Perks & Benefits

• Development opportunities through on-the-job experiences, learning from industry bests, and education
• Access to NXP's global headquarters and sites in the Netherlands
• Participation in social activities like Christmas parties and International Walking Day
• Joining the YOUNG community for social and professional events
• Participation in Women in NXP initiatives
• Volunteering activities like Girls Day

Project Title: Sample fabrication for electrical loss measurements of dielectric materials for automotive radar applications

Package Innovation, within NXP CTO, is a multi-national organization, responsible for product, technology, and process development for all of NXP’s semiconductor packages. In product development, we design packages and simulate their electrical, mechanical, and thermal characteristics to ensure they will meet their desired use case requirements. In technology development, we are in the forefront of NXP’s and, often times, the industry’s most advanced packages—reducing to practice new ideas and new materials, and bringing them to market to serve our customers’ needs. In process development, we work in partnership with our internal assembly factories to develop the process concepts and recipes, the equipment and tooling, and the underlying materials and handling that enable high quality and high yield for manufacturing.

All this is accomplished with a fundamental commitment to the highest quality; deep understanding of our businesses, markets, products, and customers; deep technical understanding of the physical systems and materials we employ; and a commitment to a smooth hand-off to our manufacturing partners, both internal and external. It’s all enabled by top-notch, committed people, spanning the globe, and co-located with our businesses and factories.

Project overview:

As part of the drive towards autonomous driving and improvement of car safety, NXP is striving to develop automotive radar chips with ever-increasing performance.

In the journey to become the market leader in the semiconductor industry for automotive radar chips, NXP’s products need to meet ever more stringent requirements related to the electrical losses of dielectric materials used in packaging. In addition, the electrical losses become more pronounced at the higher frequencies (100 GHz and above) which are needed for higher bandwidth in the next-generation autonomous cars with higher resolution of surrounding environment. Lowering the dielectric loss improves the performance of autonomous cars by increasing the effective range of the car radar.

At the moment, within Package Innovation (R&D) in Nijmegen, the main focus is on setting up and expanding the capabilities of our mm-wave lab for electrical loss measurements. In addition to a network analyzer connected to frequency extenders, other measurement setups include a split-block waveguide setup, an open cavity resonator and probe stations.

Different types of samples are required for the measurement setups mentioned above. A close collaboration with the failure analysis department (PDC) at NXP, suppliers of dielectric materials, NXP labs in Austin and with Radboud University in Nijmegen are required.

Sample fabrication techniques include metal seed sputtering, electroless Cu plating, patterning using laser etching and grinding/polishing.

The activities are going to be focused on sample fabrication techniques and optimizing the methods to reduce/eliminate defects such as high surface roughness, metal dendrites along etching lines and delamination between metal layers and dielectric material.

Activities involved in this project:

• Interfacing with internal departments at NXP and outside (suppliers, Radboud University) to collaborate on dielectric sample fabrication.
• Literature study of parameters such as moisture content, material aging/oxidation, surface roughness – what is their effect on dielectric loss?
• Designing ground-signal-ground samples: dimensions, measurement frequency, thickness.
• Optimization of sample fabrication technique to reduce/eliminate defects.
• Design of Experiment to study effect of surface roughness, moisture content and sample aging/oxidation on dielectric loss.
• Ionic analysis of chemical elements inside dielectric and die attach materials
• Measurements of thermal conductivity of die attach and liquid mold compound
• Stress-strain measurements of materials using tensile test machine
• Final report

Your profile

To be successful in this role you have:

• Studying Material Sciences such as Physics/Chemistry, or equivalent study at BSc, MSc level. The content and responsibilities of the internship will be adapted to the education level
• Basic understanding of semiconductors and electrical loss mechanisms in dielectric materials
• Passionate in hands-on, lab-oriented environment
• Pro-active attitude in problem-solving, planning and collaboration with other departments
• Detail oriented and drives for perfection with willingness to take ownership
• Strong analytical problem solving
• Effective oral and written communication and relation-skills with intercultural awareness

Duration

This is a full-time internship (40 hours per week) with a duration of 6 months or longer. The assignment could also be suitable as a thesis/graduation project. Please note that in order to be considered for an internship/working student assignment, you need to be registered as a student during the entire period.

Creating Secure Connections and Infrastructure for a Smarter World

NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) makes products and environments safer, more sustainable, and more secure with innovative connectivity and edge processing solutions for a smarter world. We are in the business of better. Not just better technologies, but better innovations to improve society. As the world leader in secure connectivity and processing solutions for embedded applications, NXP is solving the world’s most complex technology challenges to accelerate business innovation, enhance how we work, and advance how we live. If you are as excited about this opportunity as we are, we kindly invite you to apply.

What Can You Expect?

Development opportunities: We believe that a key component to growing our business is to develop our people. To enable you to grow your career at NXP, we provide you with a mix of learning through on-the-job experiences, learning from industries bests, and learning through education to help you develop your core and professional skills.

Our offices: The Netherlands is home to our global headquarters (Eindhoven) along with two additional sites (Nijmegen, Delft) and includes a diverse team of over 2000 employees with 51 different nationalities focused on R&D, manufacturing, product development, business operations, legal and sales.

Hiring process: Applying only takes a minute! Fill in the online application and share your CV with us. After a positive screening based on your CV you will have an initial video conversation with our Talent Acquisition Consultant followed by several business interviews. Here are some useful tips to help you prepare.

And more: Life at NXP is more than work alone. Join one of the many social activities that are organized by and for employees in the Netherlands, such as our Christmas parties and International Walking Day. We have a YOUNG community that organizes a mix of social and professional events for our young professionals and an active Women in NXP. We also take time to give back to our communities by engaging young girls to learn about Technology during Girls Day or participating in several volunteering activities.

What’s Next?

If you’re excited about this opportunity, we kindly invite you to apply! If you have any questions, we are happy to answer them.

Career Development Opportunities

Bright Minds. Bright Futures.

We believe that a key component to growing our business is to develop our people. To enable you to grow your career at NXP, we offer online and offline learning opportunities to help you develop some of your core and professional skills.

Commitment At NXP.

We recognize NXP is a powerful change agent as we continue to deliver innovative solutions that advance a more sustainable future. We remain steadfast in our commitment to sustainability and making measurable year-on-year progress. Also, we aim to create an inclusive work environment and we will not tolerate racism, discrimination or harassment of any kind. We have programs in place focused on diversity, inclusion and equality.

Thank you for considering a career at NXP. To help you prepare for the different steps in our hiring process, see the following useful advice and tips.

Are you already an NXP employee? Do not apply here. Instead, you must apply via our internal career page.

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Thank you for your interest in supporting our recruitment efforts. Please note that NXP operates under a strict Preferred Supplier List (PSL) for all recruitment activities.

Any candidate profiles or resume submitted without a prior written agreement or explicit request from our Talent Acquisition team will be considered unsolicited.

Such submissions will be deemed free of any obligations, and no fees will be paid by NXP or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or divisions - regardless of whether the candidate is hired, either coincidentally or otherwise.

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