Professor Wöhrle's team includes researchers from the Department of Electronic Components and Circuits (EBS) and the Smart Embedded Systems group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS). The team is working together to develop innovative hardware and software architectures for future embedded systems using artificial intelligence methods, with an emphasis on medical systems. The collaboration brings together the expertise of both institutions to develop innovative solutions for domain-specific computer and accelerator architectures, as well as the appropriate algorithms and their implementation in software and hardware for applications such as neural implants, biosignal processing, sensor data processing and fusion, artificial intelligence and robotics. The fundamental technologies are developed, simulated and characterised in the EBS department, forming the basis for their transfer into applications and subsequent optimisation at Fraunhofer IMS.

Start of employment

at the earliest possible date

Duration of employment

4 years

Your main tasks

Your responsibilities will include active participation in a growing team that is involved in researching new domain-specific computer architectures and the underlying digital technology implementation in ASICs and FPGAs. Your tasks will include:

• Development and optimization of hardware architectures: You will design novel computer and accelerator architectures for embedded systems that are specifically designed for use in AI and signal processing applications.
• Digital design and verification: You will be responsible for the modelling, implementation and simulation of digital circuits (e.g. in VHDL, Verilog or SystemVerilog) as well as their verification at functional and system level.
• Integration of AI algorithms: You will work on the hardware implementation and optimization of machine learning techniques and algorithms to maximize their efficiency and performance for specific use cases.
• Hardware-software co-design: You will develop and optimize hardware-software interfaces and participate in co-design development in order to make the best possible use of the synergy between specialized hardware and associated software. This may include the modification, further development and partitioning of the algorithms to be used. The focus here is on analyzing and implementing the distribution of tasks between hardware and software in order to increase efficiency and performance.
• Technology transfer and prototyping: You will accompany the process from simulation to prototyping in FPGA or ASIC technologies, including adaptation to industrial standards and requirements.
• Publication and presentation: You will publish and present results in scientific journals and at conferences to actively contribute to the scientific discussion.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration: You will work in close cooperation with internal and external partners from science and industry to drive technological breakthroughs in applications such as medical technology, artificial intelligence or autonomous robotics.

Your profile

• PhD or equivalent qualification in electrical engineering, electronics, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, technical computer science, physics or a similar subject.
• Experience in the design of complex digital circuits using hardware description languages (Verilog, SystemVerilog or VHDL) for ASICs and/or FPGAs using relevant toolchains like Cadence, AMD (Vivado), yosys/OpenROAD or similar.
• Experience in software development using C and/or Python.
• Knowledge in medical technology, compiler engineering, domain specific languages, Hardware/Algorithm-Codesign, machine learning, embedded operating systems and/or robotics are a plus.
• High motivation to solve scientific challenges creatively and independently
• Written and spoken German language skills are preferred
• Further academic qualification is expected and supported as part of the position.

In unmittelbarer Nähe (Luftlinie 1 km) zu unserem Fachgebiet EBS der Universität Duisburg-Essen liegt das Fraunhofer Institut für Mikroelektronische Schaltungen und Systeme (IMS) Duisburg. Zwischen beiden Institutionen gibt es eine enge Zusammenarbeit. Am IMS arbeiten ca. 250 Mitarbeiter (studentisch/ technisch/ wissenschaftlich). Eine Vielzahl der IMS-Projekte besitzen einen Forschungs- und Entwicklungscharakter, sodass sich hier für Doktoranden eine hervorragende Möglichkeit zur Promotion bildet.

Innerhalb dieser Zeit kann eine Entwicklung vom Konzept über die Fertigung bis zum Test und Montage verfolgt und dokumentiert werden. Bei Interesse schauen Sie sich bei der Personalabteilung des IMS unter dem Link.