Job Description

Senior Electronics Engineer

Caltech
Job Category: Occasional
Exempt Overtime Eligible: Overtime Eligible
Benefits Eligible: Non-Benefit Based

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world\'s brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

Job Summary

The Optical/InfraRed (OIR) Instrumentation Group within Caltech Optical Observatories is seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer on an occasional basis not to exceed 32 hours per month. COO provides high-performance astronomical instrumentation for premier observatories on the ground, in Antarctica and space. The candidate must have a master\'s in electrical engineering and at least 15 years of professional experience, including expertise in scientific CCD setup, operation, performance characterization and optimization appropriate to supporting and optimizing the 600-megapixel CCD mosaic in the Zwicky Transient Facility located at the Palomar Observatory.

Essential Job Duties

• Review control waveforms for the CCD mosaic on the Zwicky Transient Facility, to determine which is the version previously developed to correct the charge transport problems which appear to be responsible for the increase in photometric errors in October 2019, most obviously on CCD6.
• Install new versions developed using Caltech Optical Observatories "Waveform Definition Language" (WDL) and verify that good CCD charge transfer has been restored without compromising other performance characteristics.
• After installing new CCD control waveforms confirm performance by conducting the following measurements for each channel of the ZTF CCD mosaic, or by helping COO electronics engineers to do so:
  • Deferred charge vs. signal, for serial charge transfer.
  • Deferred charge vs. signal, for serial charge transfer.
  • Photon transfer curves; infer conversion gains and well capacities.
  • Read noise in image areas and overscans for short dark frames. (Convert to e-).
  • Linearity.
• In the process of making these measurements, assure that the most up to date test scripts (in Python), are recorded in a central location accessible to COO engineers and that these are well labelled, and documented adequately to allow others familiar with Python and WDL to operate them autonomously. Work with COO engineers and programmers to confirm that this is the case.
• Provide future advice or assistance with CCD testing/optimization by mutual agreement.

• Master\'s degree in electrical engineering, physics, and/or computer science with 15+ years related experience.
• Expertise in scientific CCD setup, operation, performance characterization and optimization.
• Expertise in Python coding for image analysis for astronomical image sensors, including a thorough understanding of specific python analysis scripts required for the analyses listed above.
• Thorough understanding of the CCD control waveform definitions for the ZTF CCD mosaic, and WDL, a tool for producing the configuration files for the Archon CCD controllers manufactured by Semiconductor Technology Associates and used on ZTF.

• Resume