Research Scientist

Natcast (short for The National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology) is a new, purposebuilt, nonprofit entity created to operate the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) consortium, established by the CHIPS Act of the U.S. government.

Working at Natcast represents an opportunity to help extend America’s leadership in semiconductor technology, significantly reduce the time and cost of moving from idea to commercialization, and build and sustain a semiconductor workforce development ecosystem.

These efforts to advance semiconductor technology and seed new industries built on the capabilities of a wide range of advanced chips hold the potential to benefit the country and the world for generations to come.

Research Scientist

In this role, you will advance the integration of artificial intelligence into semiconductor R&D by developing explainable, physicsinformed, and multimodal AI models. Your research will enable breakthrough capabilities in fault isolation, submicron feature detection, and rootcause analysis for nextgeneration 2.5D3D advanced packaging technologies.

You will work on AI model development that fuses multiple imaging modalities (e.g., SEM, Xray CT, SAM, Optical) to overcome limitations of singlemode inspection, and you will collaborate with experts from academia, industry, and government to help develop scalable, interoperable solutions.

Every day you will push the boundaries of machine learning applications, developing innovative solutions to challenges in semiconductor failure analysis and fault isolation while enhancing Americas technological capabilities.

To thrive in this role, you must combine deep AI expertise with an understanding of semiconductor inspection and physics, demonstrating both theoretical insight and handson implementation experience in cuttingedge ML systems.

Natcast (short for The National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology) is a new, purposebuilt, nonprofit entity created to operate the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) consortium, established by the CHIPS Act of the U.S. government.

Working at Natcast represents an opportunity to help extend America’s leadership in semiconductor technology, significantly reduce the time and cost of moving from idea to commercialization, and build and sustain a semiconductor workforce development ecosystem.

These efforts to advance semiconductor technology and seed new industries built on the capabilities of a wide range of advanced chips hold the potential to benefit the country and the world for generations to come.

Key Responsibilities

Research and Development

• Lead AIML research focused on failure analysis and localization, defect detection in advanced packaging.

• • Design and develop multimodal fusion models that integrate various modalities.

  • • Apply and extend PhysicsInformed Neural Networks (PINNs) to incorporate domain knowledge and enhance model generalization.

    • • Leverage large language models (LLMs) to automate report generation, annotation, and image interpretation.

      • • Create standardized, annotated defect datasets and benchmark tools to support model training and validation.

        • Technical Leadership

          • Develop methodologies for AI validation and explainability, including SHAP, LIME, and other XAI tools.

          • • Optimize AI frameworks for highresolution data and highperformance computing environments.

            • • Contribute to impactful technical publications and conference presentations.

              • • Interface with tool vendors and researchers to support realworld deployment and feedback.

                • Innovation and Collaboration

                  • Drive strategic innovation within NATCAST’s roadmapaligned R&D ecosystem.

                  • • Engage with semiconductor equipment manufacturers, standards bodies (e.g., NIST), and academic partners.

                    • • Support development of interoperable tools and FAIRcompliant datasets to accelerate adoption.

                      • • Identify key scientific and technological challenges in inspection for heterogeneous integration and propose novel MLbased approaches to solve them.

                        • Required Skills and Qualifications

                          Academic and Research Credentials

                          • Ph.D. (or exceptional M.S. with significant experience) in AI, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field

                          • • Demonstrated record of AIML research in applied or scientific domains

                            • • Strong publication track record in toptier ML, computer vision, or semiconductor research venues

                              • Technical Expertise

                                • Proficient in Python and ML libraries such as PyTorch or TensorFlow

                                • • Experience with multimodal learning, computer vision, or physicsinformed models

                                  • • Familiarity with highperformance computing and GPU acceleration

                                    • • Strong skills in model interpretability, benchmarking, and dataset management

                                      • Preferred Additional Capabilities

                                        • Experience working with semiconductor inspection or process data (e.g., SEM, Xray CT)

                                        • • Exposure to failure analysis tools or reliability engineering

                                          • • Prior industry collaboration, opensource project contributions, or technology transfer experience

                                            • Natcast is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, or any protected attribute. We encourage qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply and join us in our mission. If you require accommodation at any stage of the application process due to a disability, please let us know.

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