Integration Challenges For ATE Data


Tighter integration of automatic test equipment (ATE) into semiconductor manufacturing, so that data from one process can be seamlessly leveraged by another, holds significant promise to boost manufacturing efficiency and yield. The challenge is selling this concept to fabs, packaging houses, and their customers. Data involving yield parameters, process variations, and intricate details abou... » read more

Challenges Of Testing Advanced Packages


The number of things that can wrong in assembly and test increases as more chips are added into a package. Testing is the usual guarantor of a reliable device, but in an advanced package there are all sorts of new issues — more contacts, different handling requirements, the necessary thermal conditions for test, and variation within the package. George Harris, vice president of global test se... » read more

Fab And Field Data Transforming Manufacturing Processes


The ability to capture, process, and analyze data in the field is transforming semiconductor metrology and testing, providing invaluable insight into a product's performance in real-time and under real-world conditions and use cases. Historically, data that encapsulates parameters such as power consumption, temperature, voltages, currents, timing, and other characteristics, was confined to d... » read more

Customizing IC Test To Improve Yield And Reliability


Testing the performance and power of semiconductors as they come off the production line is beginning to shift left in the fab, reversing a long-standing trend of assessing chips just prior to shipping. While this may sound straightforward, it's a difficult challenge which, if successful, will have broad implications for the entire design-through-manufacturing flow. Manufacturers typically g... » read more

Adding Security Into Test


Security is becoming a much bigger concern as more electronics are added into cars, as more devices are connected to the internet, and as the value of data continues to increase. The problem is that security is dynamic. It continues to change throughout the lifetime of a system, and some of these devices are expected to last for a decade or more. Lee Harrison, director of Tessent product market... » read more

Test Connections Clean Up With Real-Time Maintenance


Test facilities are beginning to implement real-time maintenance, rather than scheduled maintenance, to reduce manufacturing costs and boost product yield. Adaptive cleaning of probe needles and test sockets can extend equipment lifetimes and reduce yield excursions. The same is true for load board repair, which is moving toward predictive maintenance. But this change is much more complicate... » read more

Testing 2.5D And 3D-ICs


Disaggregating SoCs allows chipmakers to cram more features and functions into a package than can fit on a reticle-sized chip. But as Vidya Neerkundar, technical marketing engineer at Siemens EDA explains, there are challenges in accessing all of the dies or chiplets in a package. The new IEEE 1838 standard addresses that, as well as what to do when 2.5D and 3D-ICs are combined together in the ... » read more

Data-driven Scheduling for High-mix and Low-volume Production in Semiconductor Assembly and Testing


Abstract: The objective of this research is to improve scheduling decisions in high-mix low-volume (HMLV) production environments. Unique characteristics of HMLV semiconductor assembly and testing operations include: (1) Diversified Product Lines: To respond to global competition and different customer needs, manufacturers are providing diversified products to different consumers; (2) Unrelate... » read more

Total Critical Area For Optimizing Test Patterns


Increasing complexity at advanced nodes makes it much harder to locate defects and latent defects because there is more surface area to cover and much less space between the various components in a leading-edge chip design. Ron Press, technology enablement director at Siemens Digital Industries Software, talks about why it’s so important to predict where defects are most likely to occur in th... » read more

Making Test Transparent With Better Data


Data is critical for a variety of processes inside the fab. The challenge is getting enough consistent data from different equipment and then plugging it back into the design, manufacturing, and test flows to quickly improve the process and uncover hard-to-find defective die. Progress is being made. The inspection and test industry is on the cusp of having more dynamic ways to access the dat... » read more

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