Principal Engineer - Dry Etch Process & Equipment

About the role

Micron Technology, Inc. is hiring a Principal Engineer for its Fab 10A facility, focused on dry etch processes and equipment. The engineer works with a team of process and equipment engineers who start up, develop and optimize processes to improve product quality and reliability, and who tackle yield improvement, cost reduction, productivity gains and risk management. The role identifies, diagnoses and resolves process problems using failure analysis, FMEA, 8D or SPC methods.

Key responsibilities

• Lead productivity, yield, quality and cost improvement initiatives with global sites and the network team through plasma process optimization, new/FOAK chemistry and hardware qualification, and CIP development with dry etch suppliers.
• Drive defect reduction, particle/residue control, CD uniformity, profile control and chamber matching across the global fleet.
• Develop the Dry Etch CIP roadmap covering chamber parts, RF/match networks, gas delivery, ESC, endpoint and plasma source upgrades.
• Set up IoT/FDC sensors and chamber telemetry, and establish process windows and recipe robustness.
• Work with suppliers on equipment start-up acceptance criteria, chamber qualification flows and tool service requirements, including new tool installation needs such as abatement, exhaust and RF compliance.
• Improve tool efficiency, WPD and utilization through benchmarking and productivity programs, and enable energy savings, PFC/F-gas abatement and waste reduction aligned to sustainability targets.
• Integrate AI-assisted tools into daily work and share AI-enabled improvements.

Required profile

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Chemical, Electrical or Materials Engineering, Physics or Materials Science, or equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience in semiconductor equipment and process management for dry etch (LAM Kiyo / Flex / Vantex / Versys, TEL Tactras / RK, AMAT Sym3 / Centura, or equivalent).
• Proven track record in maturing tool performance and establishing plasma process parameters, and in abnormal analysis (FDC, SPC excursions, chamber-matching deviations).
• Experience in plasma process and hardware improvement and development in the semiconductor industry, specifically dry etch.
• Strong analytical skills and a record of tangible results in tool performance and process management projects.

Required skills

• Hardware CIP roadmaps and start-up acceptance criteria for dry etch chambers and consumables.
• Root cause analysis and troubleshooting of wafer fabrication problems.
• Digital fluency and role-appropriate AI literacy.