In the Science, Engineering and Technology Group of KU Leuven, Faculty of Engineering Science, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), research group MICAS, there is a full-time academic vacancy in the area of micro/nano-electronic integrated circuit design at campus Arenberg, Heverlee (Leuven). We are looking for internationally oriented candidates with an excellent research record and educational competence in analog and RF integrated circuit design.
The research group MICAS is a world leader in the field of integrated circuit (IC) design (analog, mixed-signal, digital, RF and microwave) across a wide range of different IC technologies. Over the past decades, the research team of MICAS has achieved many breakthrough chip innovations and has created several spinoff companies. Telecommunications & connectivity, Quality of life, Health and Mobility are all application domains in which MICAS drives research towards the next generation of electronic circuits and systems for a social, comfortable, healthy and safer life.
The success of MICAS is based on its diverse, excellent researchers who operate collaboratively under a unique research method that spans all steps in the IC design cycle: from system-level conceptualization and architecting, over chip design and implementation, to fabrication and packaging. The final step, the experimental lab validation of the actual chip, can exploit the very advanced lab facilities available in Leuven. This approach lets us deliver silicon-proven circuit concepts that are highly esteemed by our academic and industrial partners and competitors.
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Duties
Research
Analog and RF IC design are becoming increasingly challenging as semiconductor technology scales: increasing variability and decreasing supply voltage are major bottlenecks. As a result, accuracy, power consumption, and reliability become ever more difficult to achieve. This is in sharp contrast with the increasing specifications required from the high-performance analog circuits, due to the ever-scaling digital systems enabling ever more complex and more performing computing. Analog interfaces and radios are as such pushed towards higher speeds, lower noise figures, higher accuracies, and so on. Further scaling to 7-nm CMOS technology and below will require a true paradigm shift in analog and RF IC design.
On top of that, there is a constant urge for energy efficiency in electronic circuits and systems. Also the need for efficient power management circuits has never been more prominent. Are circuits still feasible when mismatch limits the accuracy? Or are more advanced calibration techniques needed? Is there a need to employ more redundancy? Do we need to look beyond traditional CMOS technologies to design future integrated systems?
All these questions come together in the prominent tagline for this vacancy: "giving analog and RF design the next leap into the scaled future."
Research-wise, we are looking for candidates who are motivated to engage in the following activities:
- You develop a research program at a high international level within one or more analog and/or RF integrated system application domains. You strive for excellence in your research and, as such, extend and strengthen the international reputation of the MICAS research group in the design of analog/RF integrated circuits to be applied in future systems and applications. The research can be in advanced CMOS and/or other (e.g. IGBT, InP, GaX or beyond-CMOS nano) technologies. It may focus on low-voltage and/or higher-voltage integrated circuit designs.
- You set up collaborations with the current members of the MICAS research group and strive for collaborative projects with other research groups, within and outside the ESAT department, as well as internationally, and with (Flemish and international) academic and industry partners.
- You are capable of acquiring competitive funding, acquiring resources for both fundamental and applied research.
- You are capable of managing and supervising a research team of PhD and postdoc researchers.
- You publish at the highest scientific level.
- You develop an international network and attract researchers globally.
- You give attention to valorisation in terms of applied research and transfer to existing and new businesses.
Teaching
- You ensure high-quality education within the area of integrated circuits, with a clear commitment for the program’s quality as a whole. You also contribute to the educational project of the faculty/university through the supervision of master theses and as promoter of PhD researchers.
- You develop your teachings following KU Leuven's vision on activating and research-based education and you make use of the teaching support possibilities offered.
- Your teaching assignment will be determined in consultation with you and based on your specific profile. The scope of your teaching load will be limited in the first years of your appointment and may increase later on. In general, the university will value the balance between research and teaching time.
Service
You are part of the KU Leuven and the MICAS family.
You are prepared to provide scientific, societal and internal services.
Profile
- You have a PhD in Electrical Engineering, specialized in integrated circuit design with multiple verified, published IC designs on your record.
- You have a strong research profile. The quality of your research is proven through publications in prominent international journals and conferences and through international academic or industrial experience in the field.
- You have demonstrable qualities related to academic education. Teaching experience is an advantage.
- You possess organizational skills and have a collaborative attitude. You have demonstrated leadership capacities that are relevant within a university context.
- Good command of English is required. KU Leuven offers courses in academic English.
- The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to participate in meetings.
- Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch, respectively English, to the required standard.
Offer
We are offering full-time employment in an intellectually challenging and internationally renowned environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally-oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied scientific research. Our university is highly inter- and multidisciplinarily focused and strives for international excellence. In this regard, we actively work together with research partners in Belgium and abroad, and we provide our students with an academic education based on high-quality scientific research.
You will work in Heverlee, part of Leuven, a historic, dynamic, and lively city, located in the heart of Belgium, within 20 minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours away from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
Depending on your record and qualifications, you will be appointed to or tenured in one of the grades of the senior academic staff: assistant professor, associate professor, professor or full professor. In principle, a junior researcher will be appointed as an assistant professor on the tenure track for a period of five years; after this period and with positive evaluation, she/he will be appointed permanently (or tenured) as an associate professor.
KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration & administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching, …
To facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase a starting grant of 100.000 euro is offered to new professors without substantial other funding, appointed for at least 50%.
Interested?
For more information on the contents of this professorship position, please contact:
Prof. dr. ir. Wim Dehaene, Head of the MICAS research group (wim.dehaene@kuleuven.be)
Prof. dr. ir. Georges Gielen, Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT) (georges.gielen@kuleuven.be)
Add to your application the following documents (more information is available on the KU Leuven job website):
- your biosketch in which you indicate your added value as an academic for research, education and service to the society for your past career and for your future planned activities (maximum 2 pages);
- a file on your five most important publications or realizations;
- an extensive cv including a complete list of publications; career breaks, e.g. for family reasons, can be indicated here as well;
- your research plan with focus on the development of your research line and research team in relation with the colleague-researchers of the entity of employment (maximum 5 pages);
- your vision on academic education and its organization (maximum 2 pages);
- your contribution to the society by outreach and public communication on science and technology, and by representation in boards, councils and service activities in relation to your developed expertise (maximum 1 page);
- your vision on leadership (maximum 1 page).
KU Leuven is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating a diverse environment. It explicitly encourages candidates from groups that currently are underrepresented at the university to submit their applications.
KU Leuven places great importance on research integrity and ethical conduct and will therefore ask you to sign an integrity statement upon appointment.
KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at diversiteit.HR@kuleuven.be.