Physical Design Engineer Intern (Toronto)
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Employment type: Internship
About Astera Labs
Astera Labs develops purpose-built connectivity solutions for rack-scale AI infrastructure. Our Intelligent Connectivity Platform brings together high-performance connectivity technologies for AI, cloud, server, and networking systems.
The role
As a Physical Design Engineer Intern in Toronto, you will gain hands-on experience taking a digital-design block through the physical-design flow, from RTL handoff and synthesis through floorplanning, placement, clock-tree synthesis, routing, timing closure, and signoff. You will read tool reports, debug flow issues, analyze power, performance, and area, and work with engineers across the ASIC implementation lifecycle.
This internship is an opportunity to build practical VLSI and backend-design skills while learning how physical implementation decisions affect timing, congestion, power integrity, reliability, and manufacturability.
What you'll do
- Set up and run physical-design flow stages for a block using established methodologies and reproducible work areas.
- Review RTL and physical-design inputs, including netlists, constraints, technology files, libraries, and parasitic or extraction data.
- Support synthesis, floorplanning, power-grid planning, placement, clock-tree synthesis, routing, and implementation optimization.
- Analyze timing reports, slack, skew, transition, congestion, utilization, and other quality-of-results metrics.
- Help investigate setup and hold violations and evaluate fixes such as cell sizing, buffering, Vt swaps, useful skew, and routing optimization.
- Review physical-verification and power-integrity results, including DRC, LVS, antenna, electromigration, and IR-drop findings.
- Use Unix/Linux and Tcl or other scripting tools to automate runs, parse reports, compare experiments, and improve flow reproducibility.
- Debug tool errors, warnings, broken stages, and unexpected QoR changes by examining logs, configurations, and generated reports.
- Collaborate with front-end design, timing, EMIR, physical-verification, CAD, and other engineering teams across handoffs.
- Document experiments, assumptions, results, and recommendations for future implementation work.
What you bring
Basic qualifications
- Currently pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Coursework, project, research, or hands-on experience with digital logic, VLSI, ASIC design, computer architecture, or semiconductor engineering.
- Foundational understanding of timing, setup and hold, clocks, power, placement, routing, or physical verification concepts.
- Familiarity with Unix/Linux command-line environments and at least one scripting or programming language, such as Tcl, Python, shell, or C/C++.
- Strong analytical and debugging skills, attention to detail, and interest in understanding how designs become manufacturable silicon.
- Strong written and verbal communication, organization, and time-management skills.
- A hands-on work ethic, curiosity, learning agility, and ability to take ownership of assigned deliverables.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with synthesis, floorplanning, placement, clock-tree synthesis, routing, static timing analysis, or physical-verification tools.
- Familiarity with EDA tools such as Fusion or Genus, Innovus, PrimeTime, Calibre, Voltus, or equivalent tools.
- Understanding of PVT corners, OCV/AOCV/LVF, timing closure, congestion, power planning, EMIR, DRC, LVS, or antenna checks.
- Experience writing Tcl, Python, shell, or Make-based automation for design flows and report analysis.
- Familiarity with standard-cell libraries, LEF/DEF, Liberty files, SDC constraints, SPEF extraction, or PDK concepts.
- Interest in PPA optimization, reproducible flow infrastructure, and connectivity products used in AI, cloud, server, or networking systems.
Equal opportunity
Astera Labs is committed to an inclusive workplace and considers qualified applicants without regard to protected characteristics under applicable law.
