Job Details
Company Overview
Ambiq Micro is a fabless semiconductor company based in Austin, TX developing the world’s most energy efficient circuit and software platform for the Internet of Things. Using technology originally invented by leading low power circuit researchers at the University of Michigan, Ambiq is developing a series of ultra-low power products on the Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT) Platform. The company’s Apollo line of MCUs has shattered energy efficiency records and sits at the heart of some of the most innovative wearable and IoT products in the world. Key markets include wearables, smart home devices, smart cards, wireless sensors, medical devices, and a wide variety of other wireless devices.
The Ambiq team includes low power experts and industry veterans and is growing quickly. New team members will join an evolving and exciting environment that values technology-based innovation, adaptation, and, above all, a picojoule fanaticism.
Scope and Responsibilities
The Wireless Architect will be responsible for researching and developing next-generation ultra-low power radio architectures for future Ambiq products. The candidate will work with the Marketing and Advanced Development teams to develop new wireless architectures and will then work with the Engineering team to transfer that new technology to Ambiq’s products. Areas of interest include: Bluetooth Low Energy, 802.15.4-based standards, LPWA standards, and WiFi. This position will report directly to the VP of Architecture.
Specific Responsibilities
- Work with Ambiq’s Marketing, Advanced Development, architecture and engineering teams to drive development of new ultra-low power system architectures on Ambiq Micro’s technology and product roadmaps
- Develop system level specifications and drive use case analysis
- Analyze low power communications standards from protocol down to RF modem and identify opportunities for energy savings
- Develop, analyze, and implement new architectural concepts (e.g., in MATLAB, circuit simulations, and test chips) to prove opportunity for energy savings
- Build relationships with IP providers, standards groups, and other relevant 3rd parties
- Work with the engineering team to transition new architectures into Ambiq Micro’s products
- Develop strong IP (i.e., patents, design methodologies, etc.) around newly created technologies
Experience Required
The candidate should be comfortable with independent specification, analysis and development from high level concepts through design and validation as well as collaborative development with software and hardware engineering. A deep knowledge of wireless architecture is critical, and a working knowledge of ultra-low power RF design is highly desirable. The candidate should be comfortable developing full system dataflows and modeling to guide hardware and software analysis and development. The candidate also should be comfortable specifying and modeling wireless architectures in theory, in simulation (e.g., in MATLAB), in practice for development and production deployment. An understanding of system interaction with various wireless radio protocols, data flows and signaling is required.
Specific Experience
- 10+ years of wireless architecture experience
- Experience developing novel wireless architectural concepts from idea to architecture to design to post-silicon validation
- Deep understanding of the full RF signal chain from RF modem to baseband to high level protocol
- Working knowledge of communication systems and DSP
- Strong mathematics background
- Experience with embedded system integration of radio communications required
- Ph.D. in an RF related area is highly desirable
- A knowledge of ultra-low power RF design is highly desirable
Key Personal and Professional Attributes
Ambiq Micro management is building a company that values continued technology innovation, a fanatical attention to customer needs, collaborative decision making, and, above all, enthusiasm for energy efficiency. The incoming candidate should embrace these same values. The successful candidate must be self-motivated, extremely creative, and should be comfortable learning exciting new technologies. This is an opportunity for growth and an opportunity to work on complex, interesting, and challenging projects.