What Data Center Chipmakers Can Learn From Automotive


Automotive OEMs are demanding their semiconductor suppliers achieve a nearly unmeasurable target of 10 defective parts per billion (DPPB). Whether this is realistic remains to be seen, but systems companies are looking to emulate that level of quality for their data center SoCs. Building to that quality level is more expensive up front, although ultimately it can save costs versus having to ... » read more

Test Challenges Mount As Demands For Reliability Increase


An emphasis of improving semiconductor quality is beginning to spread well beyond just data centers and automotive applications, where ICs play a role in mission- and safety-critical applications. But this focus on improved reliability is ratcheting up pressure throughout the test community, from lab to fab and into the field, in products where transistor density continues to grow — and wh... » read more

Hunting For Hardware-Related Errors In Data Centers


The semiconductor industry is urgently pursuing design, monitoring, and testing strategies to help identify and eliminate hardware defects that can cause catastrophic errors. Corrupt execution errors, also known as silent data errors, cannot be fully isolated at test — even with system-level testing — because they occur only under specific conditions. To sort out the environmental condit... » read more

Screening For Silent Data Errors


Engineers are beginning to understand the causes of silent data errors (SDEs) and the data center failures they cause, both of which can be reduced by increasing test coverage and boosting inspection on critical layers. Silent data errors are so named because if engineers don’t look for them, then they don’t know they exist. Unlike other kinds of faulty behaviors, these errors also can c... » read more

The 3 Main Obstacles To Zero DPPM And How To Overcome Them


As we all well know, there are multiple mission critical applications in today’s “Age of Smart,” that are calling for zero DPPM (defective parts per million) in semiconductors and electronic systems. In industries such as automotive, medical, aerospace, and more, where lives are at stake, defective parts are not an option. The quality imperative However, with the ever-growing complexity o... » read more

The 3 Main Obstacles To Zero DPPM And How To Overcome Them


As we all well know, there are multiple mission critical applications in today’s “Age of Smart” that are calling for zero DPPM (defective parts per million) in semiconductors and electronic systems. In industries such as automotive, medical, aerospace, and more, where lives are at stake, defective parts are not an option. The quality imperative However, with the ever-growing complexi... » read more

Outlier Detection


With increasing focus on quality and reliability across all segments beyond just automotive, medical and mil-aero, it is more critical than ever for companies to leverage every byte of test data at their disposal to ensure that they deliver the lowest possible DPPM (defective parts per million) rates to their customers. Semiconductor manufacturing operations now generate up to 100TB of test ... » read more

How Much Testing Is Enough?


As chipmakers move towards finer geometries, IC designs are obviously becoming more complex and expensive. Given the enormous risks involved, chipmakers must ensure the quality of the parts before they go out the door. And as part of quality assurance process, that requires a sound test strategy. But for years, IC makers have faced the same dilemma. On one hand, they want a stringent test me... » read more