Aspiring medical professional to engineering school to ESD engineer!
My career has been a long, adventurous, zig-zag road to be an ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) and Latch-up engineer at Micron Technology. I aspired to be a medical professional but loved to fix any machine or electronic devices as a kid. During the early 2000s when television and remotes were getting thinner and sleeker, my elder neighbors could not use their remote to control the TV as it was too small and they couldn't read anything on it. I created a bigger universal remote that could control their TV with big buttons and more functions and also control their stereo! They were so happy and I knew that I want to utilize my skills to become an Engineer and make life better for everyone. I joined an engineering school, participated & won in many robotics competitions, got my first job. I worked there for three years until I realized I want to learn more about Engineering and Device Physics. I went for my graduate studies at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where I did research in Automated Bug Triaging in semiconductor circuits and taught a class as well in programming. I graduated in 2016 as Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Major and joined Micron Technology as an ESD and Latch-up engineer in 2017! Little did I know as a kid who ran odd jobs in the slum streets of Mumbai that I would be working for one of the leading memory manufacturers of the world and making a huge impact in almost all the devices that you see and use in our daily lives!
R&D for ESD and latchup solutions in DRAM & Emerging Memory Technology
I conduct ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) and Latch-up research and experiments to investigate how to design-in the best ESD and Latch-up design and layout solutions that minimizes product defects due to ESD or Latch-up events. I develop ESD Design Rule & Guidelines to help assure adequate protection levels are available for new products to meet both internal and external customer qualification requirements. I also develop ESD/Latch-up circuit design rules which have a positive impact on ESD design and the critical issues facing the ability to achieve good ESD reliability. I perform design reviews for each DRAM and Emerging Memory design before tapeout. I coordinate first silicon design validation for ESD and perform root cause analysis to ensure that product meets Micron's minimum qualification requirements. I am motivated to continually improve product design and reliability by introducing innovative ESD Design. I am in a unique position to be able to work with and collaborate with a lot of different teams in different countries from start to finish design cycle. I work with Pathfinding, Process Development, Process Integration, Design, Layout, Verification, Tape-out, Test, Probe, Package, Assembly, Product Engineering, Applications teams - practically all the steps. It gives me a perfect opportunity to learn about different areas and its importance to the success of the products that are developed at Micron!
Being able to help create products that enrich daily lives
I love working for Micron because this company gives a vast opportunity to innovate and bring solutions that help create memory products that are practically used in all the devices that we use in our daily lives. Our lives are enriched by these devices that we use to do various things in all walks of life including communicate, educate, appliances, automotive and even medical devices and space stuff. To know that I am able to help create these products and keep them safe from the reliability concerns of ESD and Latch-up is truly rewarding. Being able to help make a positive impact in everyone's lives has always been my lifelong dream and to achieve this I am consciously making decisions everyday to just do that.
Networking & communication are an important aspect of every job
Some of the best things that have happened to me in my life and career are because of networking and communication! I love to meet new people and get to know them through various means. I have forged some lifelong friendships too. Networking is so important when you want to collaborate with different teams. With networking and collaboration, I was able to learn a lot of new processes that were not known to be before nor they were available as part of any training. I was able to innovate outside of my design scope to be able to create a solution for us to make layouts for our experiments faster and more efficient, I was even recognized in the Technology Development group for this innovation. You don't just have to network and create relationships and maintain them in a company - you can do this in all walks of life. I met some amazing people through various volunteer opportunities, community outreach that have helped me become a better person.
Micron has so many opportunities to network with people. We have Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) like Micron Young Professionals, Pride +Allies, Black Employee Network, Women's Leadership Network and so many more... There are a lot of events and clubs for various hobbies and activities too. And if you don't find some particular group, you can always start one!
Micron Leadership recognized our innovative work on a new methodology
I was recently recognized by Micron Leadership for our innovative work on making experimental layouts with a new method quickly and more efficiently. This work was a direct result of networking, collaboration, and tenacity in finding solutions and better ways to do my work. One of the projects in Emerging Memory Technology had a major framework update which required lots of resources diverted. We had quite a few experimental layouts planned for future technology node but we did not have the tools to create those layout in the new framework. We could do it with old method or manually draw each layers, however it would have been time consuming and potentially we would have had to scale back our experiments too. I was pursuing a new and efficient method. I had remembered a conversation between a colleague in India and I, regarding their past work experiences before they joined Micron Technology in India. That triggered into a discussion of the possibilities for this new methodology. We decided to collaborate on this project on our extra time and spent many nights developing it. In the end, we were able to successfully integrate this new methodology and create all the required layouts for our experiments two weeks before the deadline. This new method can be ported to other technologies as well. We were given an opportunity to present our new method to Micron Leadership in a Singapore summit and they even recognized our work on a department scale in an email newsletter.
