SEMICON West Preview: Test


Talking with the speakers scheduled to speak in the programs on IC testing at SEMICON West this year, I was struck by how much this equipment sector is changing as the value moves to software and the cloud. It has to be the first time I’ve ever mentioned PayPal in the same paragraph with semiconductor equipment, to say nothing of the business model of free hardware with software subscription.... » read more

Tech Talk: Concurrent Test


Dave Armstrong, director of business development at Advantest, discusses the usefulness of concurrent test and describes how to maximize the value of this approach. [youtube vid=UFPxTlB2LWQ] » read more

Semicon West Preview: Packaging


By Paula Doe The evolving mobile device market means the packaging, assembly and test supply chain faces a growing range of alternative technologies vying for its investment dollar, everything from Google’s modular electronics with 3D printing, to more solutions for integrating varied chips in smaller packaged systems. One potentially disruptive change is the wider use of more open-source... » read more

Test Challenges Grow


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss current and future test challenges with Dave Armstrong, director of business development at Advantest; Steve Pateras, product marketing director for Silicon Test Solutions at Mentor Graphics; Robert Ruiz, senior product marketing manager at Synopsys; Mike Slessor, president of FormFactor; and Dan Glotter, chief executive of Optimal+. SE: In our ... » read more

The Circle Of Test And EDA Is Complete


For those of you who were around and involved with EDA back in the early ’80s, you may remember that chip design was not the focus. It was the board that received most of the attention. Chips were small and did not require much in the way of functional verification. [getkc id="29" kc_name="Synthesis"] had not been invented and so gate-level design was where everything happened, and much of th... » 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

Blog Review: April 30


Applied Materials’ Jeremy Read points to a looming problem for the Internet of Things—legacy fabs that will require software upgrades and advanced process control. Also needed: Sensors attached to thousands of machines for predictive maintenance. Foundries are now ready for production finFETs. Cadence's Richard Goering captures the buzz at last week’s TSMC Tech Symposium, where the ro... » read more

Executive Insight: CH Wu


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with CH Wu, president and CEO of Advantest Taiwan, to talk about business, politics, and his philosophy on what really motivates people. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Tell us a little about who you are and your background. Wu: I graduated from college with a degree in electrical engineering and started at Philips Electric, then moved ... » read more

Improving Yield Of 2.5D Designs


While progress is being made on the packaging side of 2.5D design, more needs to be resolved when it comes to improving yields. Proponents of 2.5D present compelling benefits. Arif Rahman, a product architect at Altera, noted that the industry trend of silicon convergence is leading to multiple technologies being integrated into single-chip solutions. “2.5D/3D integration has multiple adva... » read more

DSP-Based Testing


ADC and DAC are the most typical mixed signal devices. In mixed signal testing, analog stimulus signal for an ADC is generated by an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) which employs a D/A converter inside, and an analog signal out of a DAC is measured by a digitizer or a sampler which employs an A/D converter inside. The stimulus signals for these devices are created using mathematical method, ... » read more

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