Deploying Cutting-Edge Adaptive Test Analytics Apps


By Ken Butler, Advantest, and Guy Cortez, Synopsys Semiconductor test challenges abound in this era of AI. As such, semiconductor test engineering is increasingly moving towards fully adaptive test where each device receives the “right” test content to assess its correctness. Advantest and Synopsys have partnered to provide new cutting-edge real-time adaptive test applications at the te... » read more

Enablers And Barriers For Connecting Diverse Data


More data is being collected at every step of the manufacturing process, raising the possibility of combining data in new ways to solve engineering problems. But this is far from simple, and combining results is not always possible. The semiconductor industry’s thirst for data has created oceans of it from the manufacturing process. In addition, semiconductor designs large and small now ha... » read more

Coping With Parallel Test Site-to-Site Variation


Testing multiple devices in parallel using the same ATE results in reduced test time and lower costs, but it requires engineering finesse to make it so. Minimizing test measurement variation for each device under test (DUT) is a multi-physics problem, and it's one that is becoming more essential to resolve at each new process node and in multi-chip packages. It requires synchronization of el... » read more

Production Testing For Silicon Photonics Wafers


Worldwide data centers and networks for communications currently consume about 8% of the Earth’s total energy produced. To meet the increasing demands for cloud storage, computing, and various emerging applications such as artificial intelligence, genomics revolution, and video transcoding, hyperscale data centers are being built around the world at an accelerated pace, with analysts predicti... » read more

Debug And Traceability Of MCMs And Chiplets In The Manufacturing Test Process


Single die packages and products have been the norm for decades. Moreover, so has multi-chip modules (MCMs) or system in package (SiP) for quite some time. Understandably, with ASICs and SoCs becoming larger while silicon geometries continue to get smaller, there is an opportunity to combine even more functionality into a smaller form factor for the end product. Hence, new advancements in desig... » read more

Eliminating Ground-Loop Induced Noise


As semiconductor device performance increases, especially for low power and higher speed ICs, testing low frequency 1/f, RTN and phase noise with improved signal-to-noise ratio is required. Finding and eliminating unwanted noise is required in multiple areas. Noise sources can be found inside a prober, outside a prober, and in a measurement TestCell. Historically, TestCell-generated noise was o... » read more

What’s WAT? An Overview Of WAT/PCM Data


Wafer acceptance testing (WAT) also known as process control monitoring (PCM) data is data generated by the fab at the end of manufacturing and generally made available to the fabless customer for every wafer. The data will typically have between forty and one hundred tests, each test having a result for each site (or “drop-in”) on the wafer. The sites are located so that the fab can monito... » read more

New Test Methods For 5G Wafer High-Volume Production


In order to provide the chips required for this change in the landscape, there will be a large number of changing requirements in wafer test that come out of these architectural requirements. Form Factor partnered with Intel to investigate these changes, and tested one such example of a new test methodology. In a joint collaboration with Intel to develop a test methodology for their 5G RF-So... » read more

Considerations For 5G Production Test


Like all technology advancements, bringing 5G to market requires an array of supporting tools to ensure the end products meet expectations. It will require significant performance advances in chip technology and manufacturing processes—all the while keeping price/performance at an economically viable level. Earlier this year, FormFactor’s Daniel Bock along with Jeff Damm outlined three c... » read more

Probing From Home


The current stay-at-home, work-from-home situation challenges the semiconductor industry in a way we have never seen before. Social distancing and remote work put operational procedures in place that can be difficult. In a previous post, we shared information on our virtual demos designed to help keep your semiconductor measurements running no matter where you are physically located. In this ... » read more

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