Collaboratism
People, Processes and Profitability
in the Semiconductor Assembly and Test Business
André van de Geijn

collaborate
is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations
work together on common goals.
-ism
denotes a distinctive system of beliefs, myth, doctrine or theory that
guides a social movement, institution, class or group.

Business Model
People, Processes and
Profitability
in the Semiconductor
Assembly and Test
Business.

YOU !
People
Design, test, diffusion, process, quality, assembly,
packaging, IT, marketing - engineers, managers, etc.

Process ≠ Paperstack !
But individual steps: design - production - etc.,
supporting the creation of a product.

Money
Sales
Profit
Loss Time
Development Introduction Growth Maturity Decline
Profitability
Product Life Cycle = Investment followed by a profit.
Where profit is bigger than investment.

Semiconductors = Products
Which end up in:
Memory, Bankcards, CPU, Car-ABS etc.

Business = Advantage
over Competition
by Key Differentiators
Functionality
Cost
Quality
Time-to-Market

Key Differentiators Example
ABS Module priority:
1. Quality
2. Functionality
3. Time-to-market
4. Cost

Key Differentiators
Influence each other!
★ Quality
★ Functionality
★ Time-to-market
★ Cost

Money
B Sales
C
Profit
A Time
Loss
The story of being too late:
Cost impact with a delay in time-to-market:
Bigger loss, followed by less ‘sales and profit’

Product Life Cycle
Influence each other!
★ Loss = Investment
★ Sales
★ Profit

Package Product Life Cycle
Number of connectors, package size, package
technology, end-product functionality.

Money
Sales
Profit
Loss Time
Development Introduction Growth Maturity Decline
Package time-to-market:
A new product might first be placed in the market
with available packages: to start sales......

Money
B Sales
C
Profit
A Time
Loss
Package time-to-market:
......and later introduced in a smaller package, to
gain more market share: more sales.

Package
differentiator
Same function, but:
Different package
Means:
Different process
Different workflows
Different application

Processes,
Workflows and
Applications, are
not only different,
but they also
interact with each
other!

...and with the other aspects...

...this needs collaboration...

...and that is written in the book.

Processes Workflows Applications

Processes
Individual steps,
supporting the creation of an end-product.

Some Process Examples

Processes
Building a skyscraper
Design by architect
Bill of materials
Assemble the building

Building: key differentiators
Take care of the cost,
functionality, quality and
time-to-market.
Is it a nomad shelter,
your villa, or an office
building to host 1000
employees?
Influences the processes

Building: key differentiators
Take care of the cost,
functionality, quality and
time-to-market.
Is it a nomad shelter,
your villa, or an office
building to host 1000
employees?
Influences the processes

Processes Vdd
A B
Produce a semiconductor Z
end-product A
Design the product
B
Vss
VHDL creation
Transistor level
Test program
Lay-out
Mask creation

Processes
Produce a semiconductor
end-product
Design the product
Diffuse the circuit
Create transistors
Create connections
PCM testing
Visual inspection

Processes
Produce a semiconductor
end-product
Design the product
Diffuse the circuit
Assembly and test
Wafer test
Die attach
Wire bonding
Etc. See book!

Commonality:
Buildings & Semiconductors
Efficiency: it is NOT
likely that a single person
or company can fulfill all
needed process steps by
itself!
It is all based on core
competences.

Collaborate
A person working on a
single process, needs to
be aware of:
the outputs of the
previous process.
the inputs of the next
process.
This will improve your
product and therefore
business.

Processes Workflows Applications

Workflows
Connect the individual process steps.

Design Di usion Assembly/Test
Semiconductor Workflow
Connects the top-level processes.

Design Di usion Assembly/Test
Focus on Test
Test devices, and remove fail devices.

Test Quality
Inking
Standard Test Workflow
Build up by three processes.
Different workflows possible.

Design Di usion Assembly/Test
Edge Die
Ugly Die
PCM Die
Extended Workflow
Different processes influence each other.

Test Analysis
Quality Merge
Extended Test Workflow
Build up by four processes, merge results of
diffusion with assembly/test processes.

Design Di usion Assembly/Test
Focus on Test
Test time reduction, by parallel testing.

Test time reduction
Test several products at once
Reduces costly test time
For small products
For products with long test
time
Think of up to 87% cost
reduction with 8 products
parallel testing!

Test time
reduction
This needs special hardware,
to expand tester capacity.
And special software for
optimized path finding.
Remember the costs Key
Differentiator!
Invest to create a ‘bigger’
profit.

Application influence
One application for wafer
test results
One application for merge
One application for
analysis
One application for test
time reduction
Why not one application
to support all workflows !

Develop ...to find ...and can be
a test diffusion used by test
program... failures... equipment...
Design Di usion Assembly/Test
...to prevent
use of failing
end-products.
Test-program development
Goes over all three main processes !

Test program stack
Test Program
A test program relies Test Library
heavily on the
underlaying parts. Tester Library
Tester Operating System

Tester Library Test Library Test Program
Test program
Tester library Test library
engineering
development development
development
Test program
Tester library Test library
production
release release
development
Test program
production
release
Release workflow
A released test program for production, relies on a
released tester library, and released test library.

Distribution by e-mail
In many cases, a released test program, tester
library, and test library rely on e-mail.

Collaboration
Need for an application to bring different groups of
engineers, internal and external, together

Processes Workflows Applications

Applications
Support the workflows:
The lubricant that helps to run the processes smoothly.

Application Development
Workflow
A workflow to get the needs Create User
Groups
on the table, which support Collect Process
Steps Details
the business.
Collect Business
Details
Collect requirements
Group User
Needs
Create the roadmaps.
Create Application Land-
scape
Start the
implementation.
Create
Roadmap
Create and Roll-out Ap-
Roll-out of applications. plications

One repository
For granted users only.
To collect requirements.
Discuss requests and
solutions.
Accessible from different
locations.
Store source code.
Distribution.

One repository
For applications, like the
wafer map application.
For test programs, test
libraries, and tester libraries.
Datasheet development
process.
Enables collaboration
between internal and external
engineers, and different
locations, for different
purposes.

Collaboration application
The book goes into detail of TeamForge,
an application that looks like CollabNet.

Money
Basic Intermediate Advanced
Functionality Functionality Functionality
Profit
Loss Time
How to establish applications
Establish applications in phases,
to support the business as soon as possible.

Example 1: Fab-IT
Different packages
Basic package with pins
Followed by package
with terminals

Example 1: Fab-IT
Different packages
Basic package with pins
Followed by package
with terminals

Example 1: Fab-IT
Wafer maps
Basic functionality
Intermediate
functionality
Advanced functionality

Example 2: Reuse
Money Can - Lin FlexRay SBC
Basic Intermediate Advanced
Functionality Functionality Functionality
Profit
Loss Time
It’s all about collaboration
Business model generation in a collaborative way.

Collaboration is the KEY !
Between design - diffusion -
assembly and test.
With subcontractors: at the
begin, the end, and in the
value chain.
With customers.
Define the efficient cores,
and let them collaborate,
towards a profitable
business.

Collaboratism

Collaboratism
Think about the whole value chain,
who should do what, who is good in what!
These all create a profitable business,
based on efficiency and competitiveness.

“Collaboratism shows us the amazingly tight integration and collaboration between
design, test, and assembly engineers and processes in the semiconductor industry.
It’s a deep-dive into a world most of us would never see - making clear just how much
genius went into making the brains of devices we unthinkingly depend upon every day.”
—Brian Behlendorf, founder of the Apache Software Foundation