Mandatory Internship Standardized High-Speed PCB Test Structures

Job Description:

Job Description

High-speed automotive interconnects increasingly operate at high frequency, where PCB materials and manufacturing variations strongly influence channel performance. Differences between PCB suppliers - such as laminate properties, copper foil roughness, and stackup implementations - can lead to significant variations in signal integrity metrics such as insertion loss, impedance, and propagation delay.
This internship focuses on the development of standardized high-speed PCB test coupons that enable objective comparison of materials and manufacturing processes across different suppliers. The goal is to design a universal measurement coupon containing multiple test structures that allow the characterization of key electrical parameters including insertion loss, dielectric loss, copper roughness effects, impedance, and glass-weave-induced skew.
The project contributes to establishing a repeatable measurement methodology for high-speed channel characterization, enabling supplier-independent evaluation and supporting robust high-speed PCB design.
* During your internship you will analyze existing PCB test structures to evaluate their suitability for signal integrity and material characterization.
* You will develop standardized PCB test coupons using multiple high-speed characterization structures, this involves implementing specific structures such as multi-line striplines, differential transmission lines, roughness measurement lines, and skew-sensitive trace patterns.
* Using electromagnetic field solvers, you will simulate these structures to make precise predictions about impedance and loss behavior.
* Furthermore you perform VNA (vector network analyzer) measurements on the manufactured coupons to acquire broadband S-parameters.
* From the measurement data, you extract important electrical parameters such as insertion loss, dielectric losses, propagation delay, and impedance.
* Lastly you compare the results from different materials or suppliers, evaluate their reproducibility and contribute to defining a standardized measurement as well as evaluation methodology

Candidate Requirements:

Qualifications

* Education: studies in the field of Electrical Engineering, Physics or comparable
* Experience and Knowledge: interest in high-frequency electronics, signal integrity or electromagnetic simulation; experience with Python, MATLAB or similar analysis tools is beneficial
* Personality and Working Practice: you are able to approach tasks in a structured manner and develop solutions independently
* Work Routine: office attendance required
* Languages: good in German or English