R&D DSP/FPGA Design Automation Intern

Keysight is at the forefront of technology innovation, delivering breakthroughs and trusted insights in electronic design, simulation, prototyping, test, manufacturing, and optimization. Our ~16,800 employees create world-class solutions in communications, 5G, automotive, energy, quantum, aerospace, defense, and semiconductor markets for customers in over 100 countries. Learn more about what we do.

Our award-winning culture embraces a bold vision of where technology can take us and a passion for tackling challenging problems with industry-first solutions. We believe that when people feel a sense of belonging, they can be more creative, innovative, and thrive at all points in their careers.

Job Description

We are seeking a motivated R&D intern to help develop and demonstrate a scalable, AI-assisted development workflow for FPGA-based digital signal processing systems.

This position is well suited to a student who enjoys working across traditional boundaries between signal processing, digital design, and software development. You will gain experience with a complete FPGA development lifecycle while investigating how AI-assisted engineering can improve development speed, reuse, and consistency without replacing sound engineering judgment.

Responsibilities

• Build reusable, parameterized FPGA components for DSP, such as MACs, FIFOs, adder trees, coefficient memories, delay elements and numeric conversion blocks.
• Translate DSP and system requirements into FPGA architecture and implementation specs.
• Design and verify RTL in Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL or an equivalent language.
• Write bit-accurate or fixed-point reference models to check the FPGA implementations against.
• Assemble the components into a representative streaming DSP subsystem.
• Create automated simulation and verification tests that cover numerical accuracy, reset behavior, streaming interfaces, backpressure and parameter boundaries.
• Support synthesis, timing analysis, resource evaluation and optimization.
• Use Python or a similar language to automate design, testing, data collection and reporting.
• Investigate AI-assisted development tools across FPGA architecture, implementation, verification and documentation. Define objective ways to measure the quality of their output.
• Analyze results and identify functional, numerical, timing or resource limitations.
• Collaborate with DSP, FPGA, software and system engineers, including in design reviews.
• Document interfaces, parameter constraints, verification results and findings.
• Present results and recommendations to the engineering team at the end of the internship.

Qualifications

Required

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor's or Master's in EE, CE, CS or a related field.
• Coursework, project work or job experience in DSP or digital system design.
• Understanding of digital logic, synchronous design, pipelining and FSMs.
• Experience with at least one HDL or hardware-construction language (Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL or Chisel).
• Experience with Python, MATLAB, C/C++ or a similar language for modeling or automation.
• Familiarity with fixed-point arithmetic, quantization or numerical implementation of DSP algorithms.
• Ability to turn requirements into an implementable design.
• Ability to analyze technical results and communicate conclusions clearly.
• Strong problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills.
• Ability and desire to learn emerging technologies.

Desired

• Experience designing, simulating or synthesizing FPGA logic, with Xilinx/AMD, Intel or comparable tools.
• Experience with streaming interfaces (valid/ready, FIFOs, clock domains).
• Experience implementing FIR filters, resamplers, channelizers or other waveform processing.
• Experience writing parameterized, reusable HDL.
• Experience with cocotb, constrained-random testing, assertions or formal verification.
• Experience with Git, CI, automated builds or regression testing.
• Experience building software tools for other engineers.
• Experience using AI-assisted tools for software, HDL, testing or analysis.
• Familiarity with component metadata, interface contracts, model-based design or digital twins.
• Interest in FPGA tradeoffs among throughput, latency, timing and DSP, memory and logic resources.

The level of role will be based on applicable experience, education and skills; most offers will be between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range listed below.

CA pay range: MIN $41.14 to MAX $44.31

Note: for other locations, pay ranges will vary by region.

Relocation is available for this position.

Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position.

Careers Privacy Statement ***Keysight is an Equal Opportunity Employer.***

• Build reusable, parameterized FPGA components for DSP, such as MACs, FIFOs, adder trees, coefficient memories, delay elements and numeric conversion blocks.
• Translate DSP and system requirements into FPGA architecture and implementation specs.
• Design and verify RTL in Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL or an equivalent language.
• Write bit-accurate or fixed-point reference models to check the FPGA implementations against.
• Assemble the components into a representative streaming DSP subsystem.
• Create automated simulation and verification tests that cover numerical accuracy, reset behavior, streaming interfaces, backpressure and parameter boundaries.
• Support synthesis, timing analysis, resource evaluation and optimization.
• Use Python or a similar language to automate design, testing, data collection and reporting.
• Investigate AI-assisted development tools across FPGA architecture, implementation, verification and documentation. Define objective ways to measure the quality of their output.
• Analyze results and identify functional, numerical, timing or resource limitations.
• Collaborate with DSP, FPGA, software and system engineers, including in design reviews.
• Document interfaces, parameter constraints, verification results and findings.
• Present results and recommendations to the engineering team at the end of the internship.

Required

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor's or Master's in EE, CE, CS or a related field.
• Coursework, project work or job experience in DSP or digital system design.
• Understanding of digital logic, synchronous design, pipelining and FSMs.
• Experience with at least one HDL or hardware-construction language (Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL or Chisel).
• Experience with Python, MATLAB, C/C++ or a similar language for modeling or automation.
• Familiarity with fixed-point arithmetic, quantization or numerical implementation of DSP algorithms.
• Ability to turn requirements into an implementable design.
• Ability to analyze technical results and communicate conclusions clearly.
• Strong problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills.
• Ability and desire to learn emerging technologies.

Desired

• Experience designing, simulating or synthesizing FPGA logic, with Xilinx/AMD, Intel or comparable tools.
• Experience with streaming interfaces (valid/ready, FIFOs, clock domains).
• Experience implementing FIR filters, resamplers, channelizers or other waveform processing.
• Experience writing parameterized, reusable HDL.
• Experience with cocotb, constrained-random testing, assertions or formal verification.
• Experience with Git, CI, automated builds or regression testing.
• Experience building software tools for other engineers.
• Experience using AI-assisted tools for software, HDL, testing or analysis.
• Familiarity with component metadata, interface contracts, model-based design or digital twins.
• Interest in FPGA tradeoffs among throughput, latency, timing and DSP, memory and logic resources.

The level of role will be based on applicable experience, education and skills; most offers will be between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range listed below.

CA pay range: MIN $41.14 to MAX $44.31

Note: for other locations, pay ranges will vary by region.

Relocation is available for this position.

Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position.

Careers Privacy Statement ***Keysight is an Equal Opportunity Employer.***