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Sunnyvale, Calif. - The spiraling cost of chip test came under scrutiny at last week's Semicon West trade show in San Francisco, as companies large and small demonstrated software and hardware solutions that promise to make test more cost-effective.
Startup Segin Semiconductor Solutions Ltd. unveiled the latest addition to its Astra Suite of simulation test software, which can be used in lieu of costly automatic test equipment when doing presilicon programming and tester setup. At the other extreme, companies such as Verigy Ltd. and Nextest Systems Corp. demonstrated highly parallel test systems that reduce test times for high-density NAND flash chips.
NAND vendors' production-test challenges are time-driven: Since writing and erasing the devices can take many seconds, especially for the 8-Gbit and denser chips now starting to roll off the fabrication lines, test time increases are not acceptable. Test equipment companies have responded with systems that can test hundreds of chips in parallel.
Using an optional programmable matrix system with 16,384 pins, Verigy's V5500 can test 320 devices in tandem using large load boards and fast device handlers that rapidly fill and empty the test board.
Nextest, meanwhile, demonstrated an addition to its Magnum series of highly parallel testers. The Magnum Grande-which Nextest integrated with the latest TechWing test handler, the TW-380-can test 720 NAND-flash devices at one time. That is more than double the...