2026 Summer Internship - Optical Transceiver Engineer - PhD (Santa Clara, CA)

At Applied Materials’ CTO office, we are developing optical interconnect solutions for the next generation hyperscale computing and AI/ML. You will be working with a highly capable international team to develop platform level solution for optical interconnect, including CPO (Co-Packaged Optics).

Responsibility

• Define optical interconnect solution modules (200G/lane and beyond) aligned with product-level requirements.

• Conduct hardware design optical interconnect solution and customer related demo to validate platform solution, including PCB design, schematic capture, and component selection. Guide layout engineers to complete PCB layout that meets mechanical, signal integrity, thermal, and manufacturing constraints.
• Define and optimize signal integrity (SI) for 200G/lane and beyond, covering high-speed SerDes, channel modeling, and link margin analysis.
• Develop robust power delivery network (PDN) solutions for high-density, high-speed optical/electrical systems.
• Collaborate with optical, packaging, thermal, and system engineers to co-design solutions that balance performance, power, and cost.
• Lead technical validation, bring-up, and performance optimization of CPO modules
• Support design validation, qualification, and root-cause analysis during development and production ramp.
• Stay current with and implement relevant industry standards (IEEE, MSA, CMIS, etc.).
• Contribute to automation of transceiver performance testing using Python, C++, or LabVIEW.

Qualifications

You should have System-level understanding of current and emerging optical transceiver architectures and standards,  And strong problem-solving skills and collaborative, proactive attitude.  Some travel might be required.

• Ph.D. or working towards in Electrical Engineering

Hands-on experience with:

• PCB schematic design and layout review for optical modules.
• High-speed opto-electrical system design, including DSPs, power rails, and microcontroller interfaces.
• MSA and IEEE standards for optical transceivers and other interconnect standard (e.g., QSFP, OSFP, CMIS, NVlink, UCIe).
• Skilled in using lab equipment including DCA-X, BERT, real-time oscilloscopes, OSAs, and optical power meters
• Strong Python scripting skills for test automation and data analysis
• Solid understanding of SerDes tuning, including eye diagram analysis, jitter characterization, and electrical compliance
• Experience working on both the optical module side and the host/system side of high-speed links

Qualifications

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Additional Information

Shift:

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Relocation Eligible:

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.