Digital ASIC Designer

Join CERN’s EP-ESE-ME section to develop a radiation-tolerant microcontroller ASIC for particle physics detectors and accelerator systems. The role involves full development cycle tasks including requirements definition, system architecture, implementation, verification, and post-silicon validation.

Responsibilities

• Analyse application requirements across CERN's accelerator complex and particle physics detector systems to define technical specifications for the microcontroller ASIC.
• Contribute to the architecture, design, and validation of a radiation-tolerant microcontroller ASIC implemented in 65 nm or 28 nm CMOS technology.
• Support the definition of the SoC architecture, including the selection and configuration of an appropriate RISC-V processing core.
• Design, integrate, and validate peripheral IP blocks within the CERN SOCRATES framework.
• Apply fault-tolerant design methodologies, including triple modular redundancy (TMR) and single-event upset (SEU) mitigation techniques.
• Participate in design verification activities and physical implementation, from RTL development through to tapeout.
• Contribute to post-silicon testing, characterisation, and validation following chip fabrication.

Requirements

• You are a national of a CERN Member State or Associate Member State (excluding Pakistani, Lithuanian, Latvian, Cypriot and Croatian nationals due to ceiling limits).
• By the application deadline, you have a master’s degree with 2 to 6 years of professional experience since graduation or a PhD with a maximum of 3 years of professional experience since graduation.
• You are not eligible with only a bachelor’s degree.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.
• Strong understanding of digital logic design.
• Solid experience with digital IC design and RTL development (Verilog/SystemVerilog).
• Familiarity with standard ASIC design flows (synthesis, place and route, timing closure).
• Knowledge of RISC-V architecture and its ecosystem.
• Experience with microcontroller-based embedded systems development, including firmware programming in C and peripheral interfacing.
• Your studies focused on Electronics Engineer.
• RTL design and simulation (Verilog / SystemVerilog).
• Familiarity with the digital ASIC design flow, including synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, and sign-off activities.
• Knowledge of fault-tolerant design techniques and radiation effects in CMOS circuits is an asset.
• Microcontroller embedded systems development (firmware in C, peripheral interfacing, bare-metal programming).
• Scripting and automation (Python or equivalent).
• Linux/Unix working environment.
• Spoken and written English, with a commitment to learn French.
• Curiosity and willingness to learn in a multidisciplinary environment.
• Ability to work independently as well as within a team.

Skills

• Digital Logic Design
• Digital IC Design
• RTL Development
• Verilog
• SystemVerilog
• ASIC Design Flow
• Synthesis
• Place and Route
• Timing Closure
• RISC-V architecture
• Microcontroller Embedded Systems
• Firmware Programming in C
• Peripheral Interfacing
• RTL Simulation
• Fault-Tolerant Design
• Radiation Effects in CMOS
• Scripting for Automation
• Python
• Linux/Unix Environment

Languages

English, French