University of South-Eastern Norway

University of South-Eastern Norway has about 18 000 students and about 1500 employees. The university is organized in four faculties, with instruction and R&D activities on eight campuses. The main profile of the university is to provide socially relevant education, geared towards specific professions, and adapted to the requirements of the workplace, as well as to produce applied research and development.

Department of Microsystems has a vacancy for a position as PhD Research Fellow in micro- and nano systems technology.

The position is with the Department of Microsystems and the candidate reports to the Head of Department. The place of employment is Campus Vestfold in Horten.

Qualifications

Applicants to the PhD position must have a Master’s degree or equivalent higher education qualifications in micro- and nano technology, physics, electrical engineering or similar. Experience in microfabrication and finite element modelling is an advantage. The applicant must have gained the degree within the planned time of appointment.

It is a requirement that the successful applicant is granted admission to the university’s doctoral programme in Applied Micro- and Nanosystems. According to the formal PhD regulations, average grade B or better from Master’s degree, in addition to grade B or better at the final master project, is required.

The candidate is expected to have good communication skills in both oral and written English.

The research will be conducted within a project team and the candidate's ability to work in such team will be assessed. Personal suitability for the position will be emphasized.

Information about the position

The position is within a project on piezoelectric devices funded by the Research Council of Norway and has industry collaboration. The PhD candidate will focus on methods to design and fabricate bulk acoustic wave (BAW) or surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator devices operating in the GHz frequency range. The technology is based on thin aluminium nitride (AlN) piezoelectric films. AlN films are deposited using magnetron sputtering and characterised using various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, elipsometry, atomic force microscopy etc. Different filter topologies based on the AlN resonators will be explored and their performance will be measured. The resonators will be designed using tools such as Matlab programs and multiphysics finite element packages.

Appointment is for a period of three years. The position does not include teaching duties.

For further information concerning the position, please contact Associate Professor Agne Johannessen, phone +47 31 00 93 26, email: Agne.Johannessen@usn.no at the Department of Microsystems.

We offer

• A professionally stimulating working environment.
• Good opportunities to develop your career and your academic skills
• A good social environment
• Attractive welfare benefits in the State Pension Plan

Salary

PhD Research Fellow (code 1017): NOK 449 400 a year. Further promotion will be based on service in the position. In special cases, employment in code 1378 may be considered. Salary NOK 449 400 – 607 700 a year. A statutory contribution will be made from the employee’s salary to the state pension plan.

Additional information

Appointment to the position will be carried out by The Appointments Board for PhD Research Fellows. An expert assessment of applicants will be carried out. Short-listed candidates will be called in for interviews.

The successful applicant must comply with the laws, regulations and agreements that apply to the position.

It is an aim of personnel policy that the academic staff of University of South-Eastern Norway should reflect the composition of the general population. It is therefore a personnel policy objective to achieve a balanced age and gender composition on the faculty and to recruit people from ethnic minority backgrounds. People from ethnic minority backgrounds are encouraged to apply for the position.

There are few women employed in research positions at the Department, and consequently women are especially encouraged to apply.

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information act § 25 2 paragraph, information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, even though the applicant has requested non-disclosure. The applicant will be informed if his/her request has been declined.

How to apply

University of South-Eastern Norway uses online applications. We therefore ask applicants to register their application and CV online by clicking on the “Send application” link to the right. The application must include the following documents:

1. Certified diplomas and certificates from university college/university
2. Master’s thesis
3. If relevant, a list of scientific publications
4. Three references with contact information

Please note that all documents must be translated into English or a Scandinavian language by an authorized translator if not originally written in any of these languages. For the master's thesis, a translation of the abstract together with the full text in the original language may be accepted. Master students graduating this year may also apply, and are allowed to submit the Master thesis at a later stage.

Send application