On-chip chip SoC challenges traditional test solutions

How can SoC manufacturers reduce the cost of testing while increasing the speed of complex devices?

With the use of advanced integrated circuit (IC) design methods and high-density production technologies, semiconductor manufacturers can integrate different digital and analog circuits on very small chips. The size and function of the semiconductors are unprecedented. It is a system chip. Despite its advanced design and manufacturing capabilities, IC vendors face unprecedented challenges in the rapid and cost-effective mass production of these multiple components. When combining several functional units on a single device, today's SoC devices challenge traditional test methods to reduce batch production time and test costs. As a result, vendors will be more broadly researching new approaches that provide a more effective approach to SoC design, production, and testing through an effective balance between design and testing, while reducing their Production time and testing costs.

Special challenge

As far as SoC vendors are concerned, in a highly competitive market, consumers are putting pressure on them in terms of their functionality, performance and cost. SoC vendors integrate complex digital core and analog functions in a single chip to meet the diverse needs of the market in terms of functionality and performance. However, in the manufacturing process, SoC vendors find that design and test complexity often leads to failures. With the development cost of the process technology is close to 1 million US dollars, each failure will make the cost burden worse, and delay the delivery period, which will increase economic damage. Engineers have found that under such pressures, the potential of advanced process technology and manufacturing levels cannot be fully exploited.

For test engineers, their tests face very serious challenges, one is the sheer number of devices under test, and the other is the complexity of the various circuits under test. However, the test engineer must ensure that the test is completed in a short period of time with an optimized test procedure using the least expensive test equipment. Test engineers also need a more powerful mixed-signal tester to handle high-end interfaces. The increase in the cost of testing failures in traditional continuous development methods first leads to delays in device development, and SoC vendors will increase test time and cost and production costs.

Most of the current dilemmas in the SoC test are due to the low test requirements of early generations of ICs. The latest design has improved the level of susceptibility but still lacks the ability to cope with common problems in current processes. In the traditional continuous development process (Fig. 1a), the design engineers have little information about the design, and the available test equipment is limited. Therefore, it may take a long time after the final test to finally find the problem encountered. Additional costs and delays.

The increasing sophistication of SoC devices is driving major manufacturers to adopt a more efficient SoC production-oriented design test flow approach (Figure 1b). This method makes the individual test sub-components clear, and the test development work is carried out in parallel. The result of the focus of each test group is to simultaneously produce an optimized design and a more effective test procedure. Engineers have fully mastered device performance before moving to mass production. Manufacturers can effectively balance the flexibility of a highly configured SoC platform to meet the needs of different combinations of new product types, while reducing the cost of testing while enabling rapid volume supply.

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