Post-Silicon Validation Engineer

Project

Work done for a product or program.

• Author the post-silicon validation plan mapping every datasheet parameter, feature and register to a bench or ATE test with pass/fail criteria.
• Execute functional validation of IP blocks and full-chip use cases on validation boards using bare-metal tests, firmware and OS-level workloads.
• Triage validation failures to root cause by isolating design bug, firmware defect, board issue or test-escape and file structured bug reports in the tracking system.
• Sweep voltage, frequency, temperature and process-skew corners to establish functional operating windows and margin for each subsystem.
• Correlate post-silicon results against pre-silicon simulation, emulation and STA/SPICE predictions and escalate correlation gaps to design owners.
• Drive stepping-exit criteria reviews with design, DFT, firmware and product engineering to qualify each silicon revision.
• Maintain validation coverage dashboards showing feature, register and use-case coverage against the release checklist.
• Support the errata process by characterising the failure mechanism, bounding the conditions and proposing software or configuration workarounds.
• Review datasheet and register specification drafts against measured silicon behaviour before customer release.

Function

Work that keeps the discipline running: methods, tools, suppliers and people.

• Develop reusable validation test content in C, Python and assembly that runs identically on bench, emulation and ATE platforms.

Project

1. Produce and hand over the role's key deliverables
   • Post-silicon validation plan and traceability matrix to datasheet parameters
   • Silicon validation test suites and automated regression content
   • Per-stepping silicon validation report with pass/fail and open-issue list
   • Validation coverage and exit-criteria scorecard
   • Bug and errata entries with reproduction recipes and conditions
2. Develop the test solutionGeneral
   • Define the test plan and coverage targets
   • Write and debug the test program
   • Design or specify the test hardware
3. Release to productionGeneral
   • Correlate results across testers and sites
   • Optimise test time
   • Release the program under change control

Function

1. Maintain test infrastructureGeneral
   • Keep program libraries and standards current
   • Plan tester and hardware capacity
2. Improve methodsGeneral
   • Review escapes and adjust coverage
   • Develop data analysis tools