Photovoltaics Reliability - Failure Analysis Engineer

Position Summary

Are you a skilled and motivated engineer with hands-on experience in reliability and failure analysis of semiconductor devices? Are you ready to take on an exciting challenge in climate tech by applying your expertise to the realization of robust and long-lifetime thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells & modules? If so, we invite you to apply to join our team at Antora Energy as a PV Reliability & FA Engineer.

You will collaborate with team-members who are experts in their field and also embody Antora's mission to stop climate change and core values of humility, openness, and joy. Your efforts will be pivotal in ensuring reliability and long system lifetime of a transformational combined heat and power thermal battery at Antora. Our design uses TPV in the battery as an elegant, efficient, and cost-effective solid-state heat engine to convert heat back into electricity, on-demand.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Work with system engineers to understand the operating conditions and stressors that the TPV cell & module components will be exposed to.
• Work with TPV engineers to assess potential device failure modes in cells & modules and design plans that prioritize and de-risk these failure modes.
• Develop reliability test plans, execute reliability studies, and analyze results.
• Prepare presentations to summarize and interpret results for the team’s engineers and leadership.
• TPVs in the thermal battery operate under unique stress conditions such as high power density and high illumination intensity. The person in this role will drive the development of in-house hardware solutions for stressing and testing cells, modules, and other test vehicles under controlled electrical, optical, thermal, mechanical, and environmental conditions.
• Coordinate work at 3rd party reliability and characterization labs for additional testing and failure analysis, as needed.
• Participate in integrating software solutions to enable, for example, the selection of parts for testing, automated uploading of data to our database, etc.
• Empower a design-for-quality and -reliability mindset to all the work we do at Antora.

Key Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in an engineering or technical field, or equivalent.
• 3+ years of experience working in quality/reliability for semiconductor devices (incl. but not limited to photovoltaics, LEDs, laser diodes, photodetectors, etc.)
• Experience with degradation analysis, lifetime analysis, and failure analysis. Ability to interpret results to suggest root causes, failure modes, and next steps.
• Versed in the setup, operation, and customization of reliability and electrical test equipment, including environmental chambers, power sources, etc.
• Experience and interest in hands-on development of new custom hardware solutions for mounting and stressing Antora’s materials and devices in system-relevant conditions.
• Knowledge and/or experience with accelerated lifetime testing (incl. but not limited to 85/85, TC200, fitting data to Arrhenius models, etc.)
• Empathy, sensitivity, and ability to effectively interact with a broad and diverse range of colleagues.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong motivation to address climate change through the work we do at Antora.

Additional Qualifications Desired

• Advanced degree in an engineering or technical field
• Experience in Statistical Analysis (confidence levels, SPC, DOE, etc) and software (JMP, Minitab, etc.).
• Experience with data acquisition and analysis software (Python, Matlab, Weibull++, etc.).
• Experience or interest in development of software solutions or algorithms to improve ease, throughput, error reduction, data accessibility, etc. related to reliability.
• Knowledge of other aspects of the semiconductor industry (e.g. various device types, materials systems, device processing, or packaging etc.)

Physical Demands and Working Conditions

• Able to work in a test laboratory setting and/or field exposure test site
• Able to travel occasionally in the United States, e.g. to field test sites

Salary Range:  $135,000 USD - $155,000 USD

Salary Basis:  Annual

This job posting contains the salary range that Antora Energy believes it would be willing to pay for the posted job. The actual salary offered will be determined within the posted range based on a candidate's experience, credentials, and expertise as they pertain to the requirements of the position.

In addition to a competitive base salary, Antora Energy’s Total Rewards program includes a premium health benefits package with life and disability insurance, a 401K plan, a flexible spending account, industry leading paid time off policy, providing a flexible and inclusive holiday observance, as well as paid volunteer time off. 

#LI-Onsite

#LI-JF1