The Great Migration To 5G Is Underway


Every decade brings with it a plethora of technology changes, and the cumulative effects of 50+ years of changes in wireless technologies are noteworthy for how they have changed the way we communicate. The 80’s began the era of personal computing along with 1G rollout The 90’s saw the advent of 64-bit microprocessor architecture in consumer devices coinciding with 2G rollout The... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, mobility Advantest installed its first enhanced T5851-STM16G tester of nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) solid-state drives (SSDs) using ball-grid arrays (BGAs) at a major manufacturer of IC memory devices. Anticipating the automotive market will be the largest consumer semiconductor ICs, Advantest designed the test machine to give system-level test coverage of NVMe BGA SSD devices... » read more

Finding Frameworks For End-To-End Analytics


End-to-end analytics can improve yield and ROI on tool purchases, but reaping those benefits will require common data formats, die traceability, an appropriate level of data granularity — and a determination of who owns what data. New standards, guidelines, and consortium efforts are being developed to remove these barriers to data sharing for analytics purposes. But the amount of work req... » read more

Minimizing Execution Risk In Test Solution Development


Test development projects are a mix of engineering disciplines with a complex and interdependent ecosystem. The ability to assess risks and their impact on the entire project can be the difference between success and failure. A technical project lead provides a single point of responsibility for assessing technical risk across the project, developing mitigation plans, and driving countermeasure... » read more

Removing Barriers For End-To-End Analytics


Parties are coming together, generating guidelines for sharing data from IC design and manufacturing through end of life, setting the stage for true end-to-end analytics. While the promise of big data analytics is well understood, data sharing through the semiconductor supply chain has been stymied by an inability to link together data sources throughout the lifecycle of a chip, package, or ... » read more

The Race To Zero Defects In Auto ICs


Assembly houses are fine-tuning their methodologies and processes for automotive ICs, optimizing everything from inspection and metrology to data management in order to prevent escapes and reduce the number of costly returns. Today, assembly defects account for between 12% and 15% of semiconductor customer returns in the automotive chip market. As component counts in vehicles climb from the ... » read more

System Level Test — A Primer


As semiconductor geometries become smaller and greater complexity is pushed into chips or packages, System Level Test (SLT) is becoming essential. SLT is testing a device under test (DUT) as it is used in the end-use system, by merely using it rather than creating test vectors, as is done with traditional automated test equipment (ATE). Tests are still written but in a different way… Pete... » read more

Semiconductor Test: Staying Ahead Of Nanodevices


In the semiconductor fabrication process, engineers continue to innovate, enabling smaller transistors and higher density circuits. The transition to finFETs allowed 7nm and 5nm processes to realize circuits of amazing density, and the progress of nanosheet transistors provides confidence in the future advancement of digital circuit cost reduction and performance improvement. As individual t... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Broadcom announced it will acquire cloud computing and virtualization company VMware for about $61 billion in cash and stock, and assume $8 billion in VMware net debt. If all goes as planned, the Broadcom Software Group will rebrand and operate as VMware. “The combined solutions will enable customers, including leaders in all industry verticals, greater choice and flexibility to build, run, m... » read more

Shortages Spark Novel Component Lifecycle Solutions


The semiconductor industry’s supply chain problems are prompting some innovative solutions and workarounds, and while they don't solve all problems, they are improving efficiency and extending equipment lifetimes. The shortages, which affect everything from the chips used in automotive, IoT, and consumer ICs to the equipment used to manufacture and test them — span global supply lines. T... » read more

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