PhD on Predictive Process Machine Control

About GF

GlobalFoundries (GF) is a leading manufacturer of essential semiconductors that enable AI at scale, from the cloud to the physical world. We partner closely with our customers to deliver differentiated, power-efficient, high-performance solutions for high-growth markets. Across our global footprint in the United States, Europe and Asia, our teams are solving complex challenges that shape the future of technology. At GF, you'll find the opportunity to make an impact, work with world-class talent and contribute to a more secure, sustainable future.

Your Job

In semiconductor manufacturing, no processing machine runs continuously yielding the same results. Materials used in the machine can degrade over time, simple factors like –outside temperature can fluctuate, and high usage and low usage play a roll. For stable process results, specific machine settings and recipe parameters are tuned automatically or manually. This is an essential part of work for our process and equipment experts.

As a PhD candidate, you will be looking differently at our machines and processes. You already have a scientist´s or an engineer´s view. You know and see the parameters available, regardless of current usage. There, your journey starts towards finding the optimal machine and process settings with as few as possible latest data points. Latest advances in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence indicate the possibility for improvements and will guide your research.

The goal of this work shall be the summary and testing of state-of-the-art methods in real-world applications as well as development of new methods tailored to the needs of the semiconductor industry, so in this work Data Science approaches are to be developed to enable process experts to use ML and AI for machine and process tuning.   

The contract for this position is set up for 3 years with the possibility to extend it by one additional year, if required. We are looking for a research associate who wants to take a coordinating role in a joint project with other partners from academia and industry and in aligning their research work to the requirements of later mass production. You will systematically document and present the results in regular reports. GF supports the publication of scientific results in leading journals and the protection of intellectual property by the submission of patents.  
 

Required Qualifications

• You have completed or are finalizing your Master Thesis in Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering or a comparable research field.

• Your passion is to use your scientific knowledge in a cross-functional team together with experts from other sciences and fields of engineering.
• You have already developed your own software, but also have high technical understanding capabilities.

• You have solid skills in Python and related Machine Learning libraries.

• Wrangling and evaluating data is standard for you.
• You know how to use state-of-the-art word processing software to document and communicate your results.

• You have a high degree of independence and time flexibility and enjoy communication within global teams.

• A good command of written and spoken English (C1) completes your profile.

Preferred Qualifications

• First insights into semiconductor fabrication processes, e.g. deposition, etching etc. are a plus.

• Knowledge about state models, digital twins, predictive control or world models, and about control theory are a plus.

• Knowledge of Cloud environments, e.g. AWS, is a plus.

Start Date

2027, 3 years contract with 40h/week work time.