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DA-Integrated Confidentialwww.da-integrated.com

Chipex 2011

When Did Test Become a Designer’s Challenge?


Chipex 2011


Conclusion: in 2001!


Chipex 2011


Conclusion: in 2001!

• about DA-Integrated

• evolution of microelectronics from a test perspective

• business realities of ATE industry

• 4 principles of IC test design considerations

• trends and predictions


DA-Integrated is a pure play services provider

Featuring all the capabilities and tools of a fabless

semiconductor company, we serve

• Systems companies, as their semiconductor division

• Fabless startups, as the complement to their core capability

• Established fabless and IDM, as elastic resource and

advanced capabilities

DA-Integrated


Test is Design and Manufacturing

Founded in 2002 as the world’s first fully independent test

development services provider

The key strength in test development is design and

manufacturing engineering capability

Growth of our business has been based on high level of

expertise, independence and breadth of capability

DA-Integrated


Evolution of silicon IC from a test perspective

• Through to the mid-1990’s, a silicon IC was a smaller,

cheaper commoditized version of an electronic function

IC Evolution


Evolution of silicon IC from a test perspective

• Through to the mid-1990’s, a silicon IC was a smaller,

cheaper commoditized version of an electronic function

• VLSI, Embedded Memory, Serial IO allowed the silicon IC to

become a system enabler

The DUTs are now by far the highest performance electronic

devices in the lab!

IC Evolution


Business realities of ATE industry

• Cost of test = time * rate

• Time α IC Complexity

• Rate α IC Complexity

• Test development effort (interval, cost) α IC Complexity

All trending in the wrong direction!

ATE Realities


Revenue of Two Semiconductor Bellwether Companies

$0

$2,000,000,000

$4,000,000,000

$6,000,000,000

$8,000,000,000

$10,000,000,000

$12,000,000,000

1989

1990

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1997

1998

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2000

2001

2002

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Big ATE Revenue Big Fab Equipment Revenue

Churn in ATE industry since 2001

• Divesting

• Buyouts

• Mergers

• Exits

• Restructuring

• Downsizing

• Platform Discontinuation

ATE Realities


Best Practices

BIST

TAP

BOST

PIPELINE


Best Practices

BIST

TAP

BOST

PIPELINE

Built-in self test (BIST)

has been employed for embedded memory BIST (mBIST) and digital logic (Scan)

for many years.

In general, BIST means including an on-chip circuit that verifies the correct

structural fabrication of the device and provides a highly simplified electrical

signature enabling a vastly simplified and, often, faster production screen.

Embracing the reality that the sole purpose of production test is to verify the

absence of manufacturing defects is often the most difficult challenge for SoC

developers.


Best Practices

BIST

TAP

BOST

PIPELINE

Test access ports (TAPs)

can be created as a standalone input/output (I/O) or by muxing TAP functionality

with system function-related I/O.

Fundamentally, electrical access to BIST I/O or functional I/O of embedded blocks

must be provided to enable practical production testing.


Best Practices

BIST

TAP

BOST

PIPELINE

Built-out self test (BOST)

refers to the use of custom circuitry or instrumentation that is not fully integrated

into either the SoC device or the ATE system.

Usually, BOST is included on loadboards as custom circuitry or modules.

Traditionally, BOST was frowned upon due to factory floor considerations such as

scalability, calibration and maintenance.

However, with SoC ATE instrumentation quickly losing ground to SoC device

functionality, production test solutions, including BOST, are becoming

common.


Best Practices

BIST

TAP

BOST

PIPELINE

Pipelined test flows

directly address the mismatch of test instrument cost versus utilization by

disassembling test into multiple stages. A major drawback of highly

sophisticated SoC ATE systems is that the value and cost of any specific

instrument is inversely proportional to its utilization and contribution to fault

coverage.

The principles of defect clustering dictate that the low-complexity tests such as

supply current testing, direct current (DC) parametrics and low-speed signal

tests capture the vast majority of the defect-related dropout and justifiably

occupy the bulk of test time.

The high-performance, high-cost instruments provide only incremental fault

coverage along with a non-linear contribution to test cost while sitting idle for

the majority of the test interval.


ConclusionWhen Did Test Become a Designer’s Challenge?

2001

Testers are becoming:

- Operator and Handler interfaces

- Data handling machines

- Power supplies

- TAP controllers

Product Definition, Device architects, Designers must have a thorough understanding of

manufacturing test to be considered current

Test Engineers must have a thorough understanding of design and develop new skills to define and

implement BIST, TAP, BOST

Industry and Supply Management must adapt to Pipelined testing


Your Microelectronics Partner

DA-Integrated is the Semiconductor Industry's first and leading provider of comprehensive

Integrated Circuit Development and Supply Engineering Services.

DA-Integrated features the full suite of tools and expertise of a fabless semiconductor company,

offered as pure play services, complementing our customer’s core capability.

Customer Core ExpertiseProduct Definition,

Internal IC Capability,Application Oriented Technology and IP

DA-DesignArchitecture,

Digital and Analog Design,Verification,

DFT, Physical DesignDA-Test

ATE Solutions, Hardware, SoftwareInstruments, Loadboard Circuitry,

Test Related IP

DA-OperationsSpecialized Production Facilities,

High Complexity, Moderate Volume

DA-SupplySupply Management,

Reliability,Product Engineering

Thank You

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