Defect Reduction Engineer

Semiconductor Mid-level (L4 equivalent) 2-5 years

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The job description

Tech stack. defect inspection (brightfield/darkfield), SEM review, defect source tracing, contamination control, cleanroom protocols, particle analysis (EDX), FOUP/AMHS

About the role

A wafer fab needs a defect reduction engineer focused on finding where defects come from and eliminating the sources, working from inline inspection forward to the tool, chamber, or handling step responsible. Unlike yield engineering, which works backward from sort data, you trace defects at the point of detection and shut down contamination sources before they affect more lots. You make the fab cleaner one source at a time, and your containment speed during excursions determines how many wafers survive. The defect reduction engineer also runs the excursion containment drills that train the fab to isolate contamination sources within hours, since every hour of spread costs wafers.

What you will achieve

Drive defect source elimination projects that cut inline defect density by 30 percent per year on your assigned layers, with each source verified eliminated through sustained monitoring over multiple weeks and documented evidence of elimination.
Build defect-to-source traceability so 80 percent of new defect signatures are traced to a specific tool or step within 1 week, using inspection data, tool commonality, compositional analysis, and lot-history tracing.
Reduce particle adders from handling and transport by 40 percent through protocol improvements, operator training, regular audits of FOUP and AMHS practices, and upgraded handling hardware where justified.
Own contamination-control response plans, containing excursion sources within 24 hours of detection with documented containment, root cause, corrective action, and effectiveness checks on the fix.
Cut repeat defect excursions by half through verified corrective actions and ongoing source monitoring that catches recurrence early, with alert thresholds tied to baseline defect levels.

What you will bring

Must-haves

BS or MS in materials science, physics, chemistry, or engineering.
2 to 5 years in defect inspection, contamination control, or process engineering in a production fab.
Experience with optical defect inspection tools and SEM review for defect classification and source identification.
Working knowledge of cleanroom contamination sources including particles, metals, organics, and airborne molecular contamination.
Root-cause analysis skills applied specifically to defect source tracing, connecting defect morphology and composition to origins.
Familiarity with EDX or similar compositional analysis for particle identification and source fingerprinting.

Nice-to-haves

Experience with e-beam defect inspection for small or low-contrast defects.
Knowledge of FOUP and AMHS contamination control and monitoring strategies.
Familiarity with defect pareto tools and automated defect classification systems.