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Lightmatter is seeking a Staff Electro-Optic Codesign Engineer to join the LSAE team and own end-to-end simulation, co-design, and laboratory verification of photonic-electronic links in Passage™, the company's 3D-stacked photonics engine for AI and HPC data centers. This is a technically demanding role at the intersection of photonic device modeling, analog circuit design, and full transceiver channel characterization in silicon.
You will develop and maintain high-fidelity simulation infrastructure linking optical device performance to system-level BER and link margin, driving co-design between photonic and analog circuit teams while closing the loop between simulation and lab measurement on every tape-out. This role serves as the technical anchor for photonic-electronic integration quality, ensuring Passage links meet performance specifications across all process corners.
Key responsibilities include: developing electro-optic link simulation models covering photonic device, propagation, and channel BER; building multi-physics models combining optical propagation (VPI Photonics, Lumerical INTERCONNECT/FDTD) with analog circuit behavior (Cadence Virtuoso/Spectre, Verilog-A); executing comprehensive corner analysis, Monte Carlo variation sweeps, and PVT studies to bound link margin; collaborating with analog circuit designers to co-optimize transmitter and receiver for the photonic device interface; contributing to photonic link budgets end-to-end; developing simulation-to-silicon closure methodology; diagnosing root causes of link performance gaps; authoring photonic link architectural specifications and co-design interface requirements; and proposing co-design opportunities to improve link margin, power efficiency, or yield.
Required qualifications: PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Physics, or closely related photonics/optics discipline with 5+ years experience, or MS with 8+ years directly relevant industry experience at a photonic IC, transceiver, or optical interconnect company. Deep expertise in photonic device physics and system-level optical link design (silicon photonic modulators, Ge photodetectors, passive WDM components, optical amplifiers, coherent or intensity-modulated topologies). Hands-on proficiency with photonic simulation tools (VPI Photonics, Lumerical FDTD/INTERCONNECT). Experience with analog and mixed-signal simulation (Cadence Virtuoso/Spectre, Verilog-A, Keysight ADS). Demonstrated experience developing optical link budgets, corner analyses, and simulation-to-measurement closure workflows. High-speed lab skills including VNA/S-parameter characterization, optical spectrum analyzers, high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, BER test sets, optical modulation analyzers, and optical power meters. Python proficiency for simulation scripting, measurement automation, and statistical post-processing. Excellent communication skills and familiarity with SERDES architecture (equalization topologies, CDR, mixed-signal PHY co-design).
