Changes In Data Storage and Usage


Doug Elder, vice president and general manager of OptimalPlus, talks about what’s changing in the storage and collection, including using data lakes and data engineering to break down silos and get data into a consistent format, and why it’s essential to define data up front based upon how quickly it needs to be accessed, as well as who actually owns the data. » read more

How Hardware Can Bias AI Data


Clean data is essential to good results in AI and machine learning, but data can become biased and less accurate at multiple stages in its lifetime—from moment it is generated all the way through to when it is processed—and it can happen in ways that are not always obvious and often difficult to discern. Blatant data corruption produces erroneous results that are relatively easy to ident... » read more

IP’s Growing Impact On Yield And Reliability


Chipmakers are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve first-pass silicon with design IP sourced internally and from different IP providers, and especially with configurable IP. Utilizing poorly qualified IP and waiting for issues to appear during the design-to-verification phase just before tape-out can pose high risks for design houses and foundries alike in terms of cost and time to... » read more

Who Is Responsible For Part Average Testing?


With ever-increasing demands in the automotive industry, more and more semiconductor companies are interested in monitoring and improving quality and reliability. Outlier detection and more specifically Part Average Testing (PAT) is the industry standard for the automotive industry. But, who is responsible for quality? Historically, OSATs are responsible for this. In the past, once they... » read more

ATE Lab To Fab


Shu Li, business development manager at Advantest, zeroes in on the communication gap between engineers on the design side and the manufacturing/test side, why it exists, and what needs to be done to bridge that gap in order to speed up and improve test quality. https://youtu.be/Nd-5_twbJBw     See other tech talk videos here » read more

Hidden Soldier Joints Inspection: 4 Case Studies


IC packaging technologies are becoming smaller and thinner. Ball grid array (BGA) packages were introduced some years ago in order to save space on the PCB, and are now widely used. To overcome the resulting problems with using optical microscopy as an inspection tool, the endoscope found its way into quality engineering departments. To read more, click here. » 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

How To Build An Automotive Chip


The introduction of advanced electronics into automotive design is causing massive disruption in a supply chain that, until very recently, hummed along like a finely tuned sports car. The rapid push toward autonomous driving has changed everything. This year, Level 3 autonomy will begin hitting the streets, and behind the scenes, work is underway to design SoCs for Level 4. But how these chi... » read more

The Paradox Of Automotive Electronics


There is a huge problem brewing in the automotive world. Automakers are demanding quality parts, but they're using methods and strategies developed in the steel age when suppliers were metal benders, not developers of advanced electronics. Automakers are correct in that the quality of electronics is poor. A 2018 report by J.D. Power showed that overall car reliability is improving year over ... » read more

Variation’s Long Tentacles


Today, most design engineers don't pay much attention to variation. It's generally considered to be a manufacturing problem. Even within the fab, various job functions are segmented enough that variation in one part of the process, such as the photomask shop, doesn't necessarily come to the attention of the people doing deposition and etch or those polishing the wafers. But increasingly, ... » read more

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