Siemens Calibre LVS Engineer Positions: Browse Physical Verification Roles

LVS is the tapeout gate nobody skips. Siemens Calibre LVS engineers confirm that every transistor and interconnect in the layout matches the circuit netlist before a design goes to the foundry. Until the mismatches clear, the chip does not ship.

The job runs on Calibre LVS with foundry-provided rule decks. You configure and run the comparison, then read the output for shorts, opens, and device mismatches. Interactive debug happens in Calibre RVE, where you trace a violation back to the net or device that caused it. On analog and custom digital blocks, where connectivity errors slip in by hand, working out the fix strategy is most of the effort.

Many teams post the combined Calibre DRC and LVS role rather than splitting the two, so fluency in both helps. LVS work matters most on analog and custom layouts, which is why it overlaps with Cadence Virtuoso analog design jobs.

Any team that tapes out needs LVS signoff. Physical verification groups at Nvidia, AMD, and Intel run Calibre across large SoCs. Analog and mixed-signal houses like Analog Devices and Texas Instruments lean on LVS specialists for custom layouts. Fabless startups often bring in contract PV engineers to close signoff against a hard tapeout date.

Physical verification pay is steady. Mid-level Calibre LVS engineers in the US usually sit in the $115K to $150K base range, and senior PV engineers at a large company reach $180K to $240K total compensation. The semiconductor salary guide breaks the ranges down by level and region.

Save a search on semidesignjobs.com and you'll hear when a Calibre LVS role opens that fits your experience.

FAQ

What are the most common types of LVS violations in Siemens Calibre

Net shorts, unintended connections between different nets, and net opens, missing connections that exist in the schematic, are the most common LVS violations. Device mismatches come next: wrong transistor type, missing terminals, or incorrect parameters. Resistor and capacitor count mismatches turn up often in analog layouts, usually because dummy devices were left out.

How does Calibre LVS handle hierarchical designs

Calibre LVS supports hierarchical verification, checking the layout top-down and reusing pre-verified cell-level results so unchanged cells are not re-checked. That cuts runtime sharply on large designs. You have to keep cell-level and top-level port netlists consistent, or you get false hierarchical mismatches.

What is the Calibre LVS skip cell feature and when is it used

Skip cells let you exclude specific cells, usually fill cells, decoupling capacitors, or verified hard IP macros, from the LVS comparison. You use them when a cell is verified independently as a black box, or when it holds structures the engine cannot match without special setup. Document every skip cell so the exclusion stays intentional and auditable.