Eurecat offers 1 Fellowship on “Design, Fabrication and Validation of Electronics Control Unit integrated with Organic Thermoelectrics”. The researcher will be primarily operating at the Functional Printing and Embedded Devices Unit of Eurecat placed in Mataró (Catalonia), and will collaborate closely with other groups in the HORATES consortium. 

The selected applicant will develop an expertise in:

• Studying and applying design rules to create ultra-low power electronic circuit with wireless communication
• Researching on material compatibility and electrical specifications specially designed to operate with harvester devices 
• Development of hybrid control circuitry, merging printed flexible electronics and surface mount discrete components
•  Robust integration and interconnections between the developed electronic circuitry with the novel HORATES Organic Thermoelectrics
• Validation of the whole system for autonomous measurement of sensors in laboratory environment.

The PhD candidate will be mostly dedicated to his research project, collaborating with other postdocs and students, as well as other partners within the HORATES network. As a PhD student, He/She is expected to develop his own ideas and communicate scientific results both orally and in written communications. In addition, the position will include 5-10% departmental work, mostly in other ongoing projects of the Unit related with the PhD topic.

Requirements and eligibility

• University degree in Electronic Engineering, with focus on hardware electronic design, software and printed electronics.
• The applicant cannot hold a PhD degree obtained before the enrolling in the HORATES programme.
• Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the work, the candidate is expected to have excellent collaboration skills.
• A very good capability of communicating scientific results in English, both orally and in writing is required. 

• The applicant shall, at the time of recruitment, be in the first four years of his/her research career and have not been awarded a doctoral degree (this time is measured from the date of award/diploma of the most recent taught degree).

• The applicant must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the host institute for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not taken into account.

• The applicant can be of any nationality.

Application procedure

The application should be written in English, be attached as pdf-files, and sent electronically as below:

• CV: (Please name the document: CV, Family name, Ref. number)
  •  CV
  •  Other, for example previous employments or leadership qualifications and positions of trust.
  •  Two references that we can contact.
• Personal letter: (Please name the document as: Personal letter, Family name, Ref. number) Composed of 1-2 pages where you:
  • Introduce yourself
  • Describe your previous experience of relevance for the position (e.g. education, thesis work and, if applicable, any other research activities)
  • Describe your future goals and future research focus
• Other documents:
  • Copies of bachelor and/or master’s thesis.
  • Attested copies and transcripts of completed education, grades and other certificates, eg. TOEFL test results.

Please submit your application using the online form in EURAXESS or by contacting the supervisors first. Deadline for application: January 15, 2021

For questions, please contact: Dr. Paul Lacharmoise, Unit Director of Functional Printing and Embedded Devices, paul.lacharmoise@eurecat.org. Tel: +34937419100.

Information about the research group

The Functional Printing and Embedded Devices Unit of Eurecat is dedicated to advance applied research and transfer knowledge about robust functional printed circuits. The optimisation of materials and processes based on functional inks, flexible polymer foils and printing techniques; the upscaling and industrialization of the printing processes; and the hybridization of rigid electronics components over flexible printed circuits, combining the flexibility and versatility of printed electronics and the process speed and compactness of conventional rigid components. All research is conducted in co-operation with other universities/institutes and/or industry. Our engineering team has a solid background in electronic design and integrating hybrid electronics to smart devices.

Information about the programme

The European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network HORATES brings together 8 academic institutions, including universities and research centers, and 5 companies, from 6 EU countries. The network is supported by 5 more partners, including 2 companies. The mission of the HORATES network is to use the large expertise on all aspects of hybrid and organic thermoelectrics that is available in the EU for (a) the strategic training of excellent young researchers in an emerging, interdisciplinary field and (b) the rational development of prototype energy harvesters, inspired by actual market demand. 

This will happen by giving 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) exposure to a wide spectrum of expertise. In HORATES, we fuse the synthetic organic expertise with the expertise in processing and characterization to provide stable, high-performance materials and recipes for upscaling and device fabrication. Constant interaction at all stages with theory and multiscale modelling will guide the process. Crucial for the success the Programme is a multidisciplinary and inter-sectorial network, which will allow the ESR to genuinely discover and/or feed her/his attitude while having an impact on a relevant scientific and technological field. HORATES also has the mission of disseminating its scientific and technological achievements to a broad audience (scientific community, stakeholders, general public etc.). 

The HORATES network is composed by: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (DE), Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IT), Chalmers Tekniska Högskola (SE), Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigationes Cientificas (ES), Linköpings Universitet (SE), Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL), Technische Universität Chemnitz (DE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Strasbourg (FR), Eurecat Centre Tecnològic (ES), Innovation Lab (DE) and Hot Disk AB (SE). During the programme, exchange between private sector and academia is promoted by at least one secondment per ESR with the industrial partners and beneficiaries.

Position summary

Start date: between 1st of March and 1st of May 2021.

Duration of contracts: Full-time contracts for 36 months.

Salary: The Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme offers highly competitive and attractive salaries. Gross and net amounts are subject to country-specific deductions as well as individual factors such as family allowance.

Application deadline: 15 January, 2021

Interviews will be conducted on a continuous basis until the position is filled. Therefore, please submit your application prior to the application deadline.