Component Reliability Engineer

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AOI) is seeking a Component Reliability Engineer to support the qualification and reliability improvement of optoelectronic semiconductor components at its Sugar Land facility.

This position will plan, execute, monitor, and analyze component-level reliability testing for semiconductor lasers and related optoelectronic devices. The engineer will evaluate electrical and optical performance before, during, and after reliability stress, identify degradation trends and failure signatures, and assess product lifetime and reliability risk.

The engineer will work closely with R&D, Product Engineering, Yield Engineering, Quality, Test Engineering, Equipment Engineering, and Data Engineers, to connect reliability behavior with fab process history and physical failure mechanisms.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute component-level reliability qualification and monitoring plans based on product requirements, industry standards, and customer-specific requirements.
• Plan and analyze reliability tests such as burn-in, HTOL, accelerated life testing, temperature cycling, thermal storage, humidity testing, mechanical testing, and electrostatic-discharge testing, as applicable.
• Define stress conditions, sample sizes, read points, electrical and optical measurements, and pass/fail criteria.
• Analyze device characteristics such as operating voltage, current, series resistance, threshold current, optical power, slope efficiency, wavelength, spectral performance, and other product-specific parameters.
• Monitor parameter shifts and degradation rates before, during, and after reliability stress.
• Identify early failures, wear-out behavior, abnormal populations, and reliability outliers.
• Perform statistical reliability analysis using Weibull, lognormal, Arrhenius, acceleration-factor, lifetime-projection, confidence-interval, and distribution-analysis methods.
• Prepare qualification reports, customer reliability summaries, risk assessments, and technical presentations.
• Lead component-level reliability investigations by defining failure signatures, selecting representative samples, and establishing the technical questions for physical failure analysis.
• Partner with the failure analysis team to develop targeted root-cause analysis plans based on electrical, optical, and reliability results.
• Maintain reliability test records, failure classifications, investigation conclusions, and traceability to physical failure-analysis results.

Reliability Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Semiconductors, Optoelectronics, Reliability Testing, Semiconductor Laser, Analysis Skills, Risk, Trend Analysis, Failure Analysis, * Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Reliability Engineering, or a related technical field.

• Three or more years of experience in semiconductor, optoelectronic, photonic, or electronic-component reliability.
• Strong knowledge of electrical characterization and component-level reliability testing.
• Experience interpreting reliability failure signatures and developing technically sound failure-analysis plans.
• Understanding of semiconductor device physics, degradation mechanisms, and the relationship between electrical behavior and physical defects.

Preferred

• Master’s degree in electrical engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Reliability Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with InP, GaAs, semiconductor lasers, photodetectors, or other optoelectronic components.
• Working knowledge of Python, SQL, or other tools for reliability-data reduction, automation, and visualization.

In addition to competitive salary, AOI offers

• Flexible and competitive health (medical, dental, vision) plans offer the employee with the right options to meet individual and family needs
• Employer matching on 401(k) deferrals
• Generous PTO policy, with unused PTO payout at end of the year
• Relocation package available within US
• Immigration sponsorships (Must be currently authorized to work in the US)