Test Engineers In Very Short Supply


Semiconductor design, verification, manufacturing, and test requires an army of engineers, with each playing a special role. But increasingly, these disciplines also require additional training to be able to understand the context around their jobs, and that is making it harder to fill different positions at a time when the chip industry already is severely short-staffed. This is particularl... » read more

Completing The Silicon Lifecycle Management Puzzle


The year 2020 will be remembered for many reasons. The global pandemic, the political struggles and the extreme weather will occupy our thoughts for many years. There was another event that occurred in 2020 that will also be remembered in a smaller, but very important portion of the world. It’s the year that Synopsys acquired Moortec to complete the silicon lifecycle management (SLM) puzzle. ... » read more

Infrastructure Impacts Data Analytics


Semiconductor data analytics relies upon timely, error-free data from the manufacturing processes, but the IT infrastructure investment and engineering effort needed to deliver that data is, expensive, enormous, and still growing. The volume of data has ballooned at all points of data generation as equipment makers add more sensors into their tools, and as monitors are embedded into the chip... » read more

Picking The Right Location For Probe Stations


High performance flicker noise or phase noise TestCells can be degraded by installing them in a bad location. And just like developing a high-performance system, finding a good location can be a time consuming and difficult task for the typical lab technician that is tasked with setting up the new prober. To do it right requires specialized measurement equipment and tools such as accelerometers... » read more

Change Management With Impact Analysis During Safety-Critical IP And SoC Development


Standards like ISO 26262 provide guidance to mitigate safety risks by defining safety analyses requirements and processes. The standard describes Change Management as a way to analyze and control changes in safety-related work products, items, and elements throughout the safety lifecycle. Impact analysis, a part of the Change Management process, is a systematic approach for evaluating changes t... » read more

Transforming Vision Inspection With Machine Learning


How auto-manufacturers can apply ML & AI algorithms to enhance image analytics on their factory floor and to ensure higher product quality? Discover the next generation visual inspection in our new case study. In this case study , you will learn about: Current limitations of image inspection in the manufacturing industry. The O+ end-to-end solution, which brings machine learning and... » read more

Adaptive Shot Technology To Address Severe Lithography Challenges For Advanced FOPLP


Fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) is a popular new packaging technology that allows the user to increase I/O in a smaller IC size than fan-in wafer level packaging. Market drivers such as 5G, IoT, mobile and AI will all use this technology. According to Yole Développement’s analysis, the fan-out packaging market size will increase to $3 billion in 2022 from $2.44 hundred million in 2014,... » read more

Silicon Lifecycle Management


How do you track, measure and ensure reliability over the lifetime of a chip, regardless of how or where it is used? Steve Pateras, senior director of marketing for test products at Synopsys, drills down into the impact of hardware-software co-design, over-the-air updates, the expected lifetime of designs, and how the various monitors and sensors are used to track environmental, structural and ... » read more

Making IC Test Faster And More Accessible: Part 2


Recently, my colleague Robert Ruiz described a new approach to scan test that utilizes the high-speed I/O (HSIO) ports that exist on most chips. The benefits of this new approach include reduced test time and cost thanks to the high-speed interface. Simplified pin electronics and tester setup are also benefits, as is the ability to run manufacturing tests in the field in support of silicon life... » read more

Selective Redundancy In Cars


The automotive industry has been fish-tailing its way through design strategies and electronics architectures, but it finally appears to be honing in on a strategy that actually might work. This doesn't mean fully autonomous vehicles will take over the road anytime soon, but at least it points carmakers in the right direction. The auto industry has been in panic mode ever since Tesla, Waymo,... » read more

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