# Plasma Dry Etch Engineer

- Company: [Absolicsinc](<https://jobstar.asia/company/absolicsinc>)
- Location: Covington, Georgia
- Team: Development
- Salary: $90K – $150K
- Posted: July 1, 2026

## Job description

**Job Title:** R&D Engineer - Dry Process (Plasma Etch /Plasma Ablation/ PVD) Expert for Advanced Packaging applications

**Location:** Covington, GA

**Job Type:** Full-Time

**About Us:** Absolics is a leading provider of advanced packaging technologies and services, offering scalable solutions for businesses of high-performance computing. We offer smart, innovative services to dozens of clients globally. By dedicating our efforts to establishing large glass substrates with built-in active and passive elements, our goal is to provide significant improvement in signaling characteristics and power consumption compared to existing solutions.

**Job Description:**

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Dry Process Engineer to join our R&D team. In this role you will lead development of dry processing capabilities across plasma etch, physical vapor deposition, and plasma-based ablation steps for fabricating advanced packaging interconnect structures. This role sits at the intersection of thin-film metallization and dielectric patterning, requiring you to steer equipment and process qualification, process recipe development, and integration handoffs with lithography, wet process, and plating teams. You will be a primary technical owner for vacuum-based unit processes in a hands-on, early-stage R&D environment where design of experiment planning capabilities and rigorous root-cause analysis both matter.

**Key Responsibilities:**

* Develop and qualify plasma etch, PVD seed deposition, and plasma ablation processes for RDL build up and interconnect structures
* Help establish process flows that enable control of film uniformity, required via or trench step coverage and taper/sidewall profile, and layer-to-layer adhesion across the various plasma-based sub processes
* Establish recipes and tune plasma chemistry and tool parameters to optimize etch selectivity and minimize defects (micro-masking, residue, undercut)
* Perform root-cause and failure analysis on dry-process defects using SEM, XPS/AES, and electrical metrology
* Assess plasma-induced damage risk (charging, UV effects) on dielectrics and downstream reliability
* Collaborate with wet process and plating teams to ensure clean handoff of seed layers and trench/via structures

**Required Skills**

* Hands-on experience with plasma etch process development (RIE, ICP, or barrel plasma) in a semiconductor or packaging environment
* Direct experience with PVD sputter deposition of seed layers (Ti, TiW, Ta, Cu) including thickness uniformity, step coverage, and adhesion control
* Experience with plasma-based dielectric ablation techniques/descum on organic or inorganic dielectrics (ABF, PBO, PSPI, polyimide)
* Working knowledge of plasma chemistry fundamentals (O₂, CF₄, SF₆, Ar, N₂ chemistries) and their etch selectivity tradeoffs
* Proficiency with vacuum system fundamentals: chamber pressure control, RF/ICP power coupling, gas flow control, end-point detection
* Metrology and characterization skills: SEM, profilometry, XPS or AES for surface composition, four-point probe for film resistivity
* DOE design and statistical analysis for process optimization (Minitab, JMP, or equivalent)
* Root-cause and failure analysis experience for etch defects (micro-masking, undercut, residue, via taper control)

**Preferred Skills**

* Experience with plasma descum/etch-back for via clean prior to metallization (organic dielectric residue removal)
* Familiarity with PECVD or ALD for inorganic dielectric or barrier films (SiN, SiO₂, SiCN)
* Experience tuning trench taper angle, sidewall profile, and CD bias for fine-pitch micro structures (≤10 µm)
* Knowledge of dry plasma Ti seed removal as an alternative to wet etch (selectivity to underlying Cu RDL)
* Familiarity with plasma uniformity modeling, chamber matching, or tool-to-tool variation reduction
* Cross-process integration experience linking dry etch outcomes to downstream plating or CMP performance
* Experience with reliability impact assessment of plasma-induced damage (charging, UV exposure effects on dielectrics)

**Education**

* Ph.D. in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics, or related field preferred
* M.S. with 3+ years of relevant industry or research experience considered

**Benefits:**

* 401K 6% matching (NO vesting period)
* Healthcare 100% support (Health, Dental, Vision)
* Life, STD, LTD 100 % support
* Cell phone allowance
* PTO and self-development

**SALARY:**

* $90,000 – $150,000

## Apply

[Apply on Absolicsinc](<https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/absolicsinc/jobs/4303984009>)

Canonical job page: <https://jobstar.asia/job/plasma-dry-etch-engineer-absolicsinc-covington-702c0684dc5687f1>
