Hardware Engineering Intern (Electrical Engineering)

Quick Facts

• Role: Hardware Engineering Intern (Electrical Engineering)

• Team: Digital and Photonics R&D

• Focus: High-speed board-level digital and mixed-signal instrumentation hardware

Description

Join a collaborative R&D environment to design, integrate, and validate high-performance electronic hardware for advanced measurement and instrumentation systems. You’ll contribute across the full hardware development lifecycle—from architecture and component selection through schematic capture, PCB/PCA implementation, board bring-up, characterization, validation, and troubleshooting—while learning from experienced hardware, signal-integrity, FPGA, software, and measurement specialists.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to high-speed board-level digital and mixed-signal hardware development (multi-GHz designs approaching ~10 GHz)

• Support the hardware lifecycle: architecture → components → schematic → PCB/PCA → bring-up → characterization → validation → troubleshooting

• Work across circuit types: RLC networks, high-speed op-amps, filters, low-noise oscillators, microcontrollers, FPGAs, ADCs/DACs, memory, and power-supply conditioning

• Design/evaluate clock and timing circuitry: oscillators, PLLs, clock generators, buffers, synchronization, distribution, and jitter-sensitive circuits

• Apply signal-integrity and noise-control principles

• Develop robust power architectures: DC/DC converters, LDOs, sequencing, decoupling, grounding, and low-noise power distribution

• Partner with signal-integrity engineers on PCB materials, stack-up, impedance targets, placement/routing, via structures, connectors, grounding, power planes, and return paths

• Use PCB/interconnect knowledge to predict electrical behavior at multi-GHz frequencies

• Participate in pre-/post-layout reviews; use SPICE, IBIS/IBIS-AMI, S-parameters, and SI/PI simulation tools/models to predict and correlate performance

• Perform lab bring-up and troubleshooting using oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, VNAs (where applicable), TDR/TDT, logic analyzers, DMMs, and power supplies

• Investigate hardware issues across signal integrity, timing/jitter, clocks, power integrity, interfaces, FPGA behavior, embedded firmware, and PCB implementation

• Collaborate with software and FPGA engineers on initialization, register configuration, diagnostics, communication interfaces, and hardware/software integration

• Support hardware verification, documentation, design-for-manufacturability, EMI/EMC, and transition to production

Benefits

• Mentorship from experienced specialists with hands-on lab work

• Opportunity to build breadth across digital, analog, mixed-signal, signal-integrity, power-integrity, FPGA, and embedded-system domains

• Increase ownership over time and strengthen engineering judgment by linking simulations to real lab measurements

• Improve communication and collaboration skills through cross-discipline peer design reviews