Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2023 - 21

To respond to these challenges, semiconductor
manufacturers must deliver
speed and manage complexity. Both
hinge on having solid data and testing
strategies. Companies that
streamline
their data and testing strategies the right
way can significantly speed up the time it
takes to get complex chips to market.
Chipmakers utilizing automated testing typically cover more test cases than organizations doing
testing manually - and they also do it faster.
The companies that get it wrong could
see delays, with chips returning for redesign
after a lengthy testing process. Longer
term, these firms could be edged out
by faster and more efficient competitors.
The World Has Changed
In addition to buyers demanding faster
turnaround times, the testing requirements
are becoming more complex.
Especially in the transportation and
wireless sectors, test complexity is increasing
because:
* Chips are packing more and more
functionality into the same footprint as
designers look to conserve space in
designs.
* There is a heavy focus on reliability in
the transportation sector. (The stakes
are higher for chip failure in a vehicle
traveling 80 miles per hour than, say, a
smart home speaker.) This, in turn, requires
more test cases and larger test
sample sizes.
* There are also more potential uses of
chips. For example, consider that the
same modem in your 5G phone
might also be in the dashboard of a
car. This means that the chips need
to be tested for multiple applications
and environments.
Despite these challenges, there are
ways for semiconductor companies to
deliver finished chips faster, in a way that
increases scalability and efficiency.
Still, it's not just a matter of doing
more of the same things faster. Trying
to increase throughput using the old
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methods is a recipe for pushing manual
testing to the breaking point.
How Manufacturers Can Adapt
Semiconductor manufacturers need
new strategies and approaches to survive,
and thrive, amidst the emphasis
on speed:
* Test Automation. This involves moving
away from manual testing and toward
automating repetitive measurements
using software-defined functionality.
Chipmakers utilizing automated testing
typically cover more test cases than
organizations doing testing manually
- and they also do it faster.
* Standardization. Companies must ensure
that comparing test results from
one organization to the next isn't like
comparing apples and oranges. Standardizing
on common platforms of test
hardware and software not only makes
these comparisons easier but also
makes testing go faster. Organizations
who have standardized test systems report
that new teams can go from receiving
a part to producing a test report
much more quickly.
* Centralization of Data and Analysis.
Data is worthless if it can't be found or if
it doesn't have the necessary context.
Centrally storing and managing data is
vital to compare measurement results
from simulation to validation to manufacturing
data. Centrally managing test
data is often a key step that enables using
test results to improve product designs.
The move toward automation has obvious,
immediate benefits by speeding up
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Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2023

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