1. Chipex 2011
When Did Test Become a Designer’s Challenge?
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

2. Chipex 2011
When Did Test Become a Designer’s Challenge?
Conclusion: in 2001!
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

3. Chipex 2011
When Did Test Become a Designer’s Challenge?
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
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

4. DA-Integrated
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
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

5. 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
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

6. 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
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7. 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!
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

8. ATE Realities
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!
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

9. ATE Realities
Revenue of Two Semiconductor Bellwether Companies
Churn in ATE industry since 2001
$12,000,000,000
• Divesting
$10,000,000,000 • Buyouts
• Mergers
$8,000,000,000
• Exits
$6,000,000,000 • Restructuring
• Downsizing
$4,000,000,000
• Platform Discontinuation
$2,000,000,000
$0
19 9
19 0
19 1
92
19 3
94
19 5
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20 9
20 0
20 1
02
20 3
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20 5
20 6
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20 9
10
8
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
19
19
19
20
Big ATE Revenue Big Fab Equipment Revenue
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

10. Best Practices
BIST
TAP
BOST
PIPELINE
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

11. Best Practices
Built-in self test (BIST)
BIST
has been employed for embedded memory BIST (mBIST) and digital logic (Scan)
TAP for many years.
BOST In general, BIST means including an on-chip circuit that verifies the correct
structural fabrication of the device and provides a highly simplified electrical
PIPELINE 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.
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12. Best Practices
Test access ports (TAPs)
BIST
can be created as a standalone input/output (I/O) or by muxing TAP functionality
TAP with system function-related I/O.
BOST Fundamentally, electrical access to BIST I/O or functional I/O of embedded blocks
must be provided to enable practical production testing.
PIPELINE
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13. Best Practices
Built-out self test (BOST)
BIST
refers to the use of custom circuitry or instrumentation that is not fully integrated
TAP into either the SoC device or the ATE system.
BOST Usually, BOST is included on loadboards as custom circuitry or modules.
PIPELINE 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.
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential

14. Best Practices
Pipelined test flows
BIST
directly address the mismatch of test instrument cost versus utilization by
TAP disassembling test into multiple stages. A major drawback of highly
sophisticated SoC ATE systems is that the value and cost of any specific
BOST instrument is inversely proportional to its utilization and contribution to fault
coverage.
PIPELINE 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.
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15. Conclusion
When 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
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16. Thank You
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 Expertise
DA-Design Product Definition, DA-Supply
Architecture, Internal IC Capability, Supply Management,
Digital and Analog Design, Application Oriented Technology and IP Reliability,
Verification, Product Engineering
DFT, Physical Design DA-Test DA-Operations
ATE Solutions, Hardware, Software Specialized Production Facilities,
Instruments, Loadboard Circuitry, High Complexity,
Test Related IP Moderate Volume
www.da-integrated.com DA-Integrated Confidential