Verigy V93000 Nanoelectronics Solution for 65nm and Smaller Digital ICs

Verigy introduced the V93000 Nanoelectronics Digital solution, providing accurate diagnostic and parametric data for structural and functional test for wafer sort and final test of advanced digital ICs at 65nm and smaller. Nanoelectronics Digital solution allows manufacturers to efficiently target new failure mechanisms that reduce manufacturing yield at 65nm and smaller, accelerating time-to-market at the lowest cost-of-test (CoT).

About the Verigy V93000
The Verigy V93000 provides a scalable architecture for testing SoCs, system-in-packages (SIPs) and high-speed memory devices. The test system provides massive multi-site capabilities, with data rates up to 12.8 Gbps and supports a full range of digital, mixed-signal and RF applications. It provides low cost-of-test for wireless applications such as cellular, WLAN, WiMax, and UWB.

Pascal Ronde, Verigy said:

The nanoelectronics era challenges conventional wisdom about the role of test in the manufacturing flow…

Automated test equipment is relinquishing its role as simply a pass/fail tool, and becoming a critical yield-enhancement tool for high volume manufacturing. Our new solution will allow V93000 users to collect accurate diagnostic and parametric data required for testing nanoelectronics, and its multi-site efficiency will set a new standard in productivity…

Manufacturers are facing test challenges as they move to process nodes at 65nm and smaller,  since there are new failure mechanisms, such as transition and bridging faults, design process interaction and inter- and intra-die variations. The challenge is made greater by growing scan vector volumes, plus more use of on-chip compression and built-in self-test (BIST) structures. Measurement accuracy also becomes more critical due to the lower voltages and higher speeds typical with smaller geometries, in addition to the integration of performance analog and DC.

The V93000 Nanoelectronics Digital solution includes the following compact test head-based configurations:

• Pin Scale 400 digital pin card, scaling from DC IO to 533 Mbps
• DC Scale DPS32 — 32 channels per card for testing multiple power; domains in multi-site, and fast synchronous triggering for improved repeatability and highest throughput
• Integrated large fail-data capture and ultra-fast data transfer
• Integrated TIA per pin
• STIL link package

Verigy recognizes the imperative for a solution that allows maximum insight while achieving the highest possible manufacturing efficiency, including rapidly moving the data off the tester for volume yield diagnostics. It allows manufacturers to take advantage of the latest test methodologies, such as more multi-site, reduced pin count access, and loop-back methodologies.

Verigy V93000 Nanoelectronics Digital solution is available now and starts at $499,000.

Related news: June 26, 2007

Verigy Introduced Port Scale RF for V93000 SoC Test Platform

Verigy introduced the Port Scale RF solution for the V93000 SoC Test Platform. This new solution provides the cost-effective, reliable RF measurement capability required to test emerging high-integration devices containing integrated RF, mixed signal, digital, power management and embedded or stacked memory, as well as low-integration RF transceivers. Verigy developed the Port Scale RF solution for the V93000 SoC test system to meet the current and future requirements of semiconductor fabless design companies, integrated device manufacturers, and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test companies.

Today RF is pervasive, a required element in a variety of wireless-enabled devices and communications applications from cell phones, to satellite-based navigation equipment, tuners and set-top boxes. RF is also required in PCs and laptops supporting standards such as WiMAX, WLAN, Bluetooth and UWB. Previously, RF components were separate parts, "jelly beans;" now, increasingly, multiple RF radios are integrated into a single IC. Similarly, devices such as mobile phones are designed to meet the standards of multiple geographies, such as GSM/CDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE and EV-DO. As a result, designs that previously would have included a single receiver now often include as many as four or more RF transceivers. As these different RF communication standards are integrated into one RF circuit, the challenges for test increase dramatically. Verigy developed the Port Scale RF in anticipation of its customers’ emerging requirements for maintaining lowest possible cost-of-test (COT), for both high-integration and low-integration RF devices.

Architecture for Optimized Throughput
The Port Scale RF solution is a solid state design with all of the RF resources located in the V93000 test head. Unlike other solutions which use slow external equipment, the Port Scale RF solution is based on fast solid state components that do not compromise throughput, performance or measurement accuracy.

The solution can be configured with 12, 24 or 48 RF ports. True quad-site is achieved with 24 RF ports and, with its high multi-site parallel efficiency, the solution addresses the port counts required by high-integration devices and provides the highest test efficiency to achieve the lowest COT. Port Scale RF meets increasing performance, yield and economic demands, offering high performance, with highly accurate, stable measurements and the industry’s lowest noise floor (down to -161 dBm/Hz).

Faster Time-to-Market
Port Scale RF features integrated analog and RF test setup, integrated test flow and step-by-step debug tools to reduce test development time. Verigy has added fast and accurate "one-click" intelligent calibration, and now uses a powerful Eclipse(TM) software environment with an active hardware view, which provides the user with an intuitive, graphical view of the RF measurement block diagram, and the ability to export RF setups to test method templates. The solid state RF design and the unique, water-cooled architecture of the V93000 mean that no test plan calibration is required during most of the development phase.

Advanced Hardware for Breakthrough Performance
Verigy incorporates the industry’s highest functionality per square centimeter onto single slot cards inserted into the V93000 test head, for smaller tester footprint and lower cost. The Port Scale RF solution is comprised of the following modular cards and kit:

• RF Source card (instrument-quality signal generator 10 MHz-6 GHz)
• RF Front End card (each provides 12 RF ports)
• RF Interface (provides, high-density, robust RF interface to customers’ load board and probe cards)
• MB AV8 card (provides 4 arbitrary wave generator (AWG) cores and 4 digitizer cores)
• 48 port RF calibration kit (support up to 10 RF systems with 1 kit)

The Port Scale RF solution starts at USD $320,000.

Related news: June 26, 2007

Verigy Introduced V93000 Consumer Mixed Signal Test Solution

Verigy introduced the V93000 Consumer Mixed Signal test solution for performing both wafer sort and final test across a broad range of highly integrated consumer devices. Semiconductor designers and high-volume manufacturers are constantly striving to strike a balance between the breadth of performance requirements and the need for effective and economical test. This is especially true for price-sensitive consumer mixed signal devices common in applications such as ODD (optical display devices), DVD, DTV (digital TV) and STB (set-top boxes); these devices are becoming increasingly integrated to include ePMIC (embedded power management IC) and embedded flash memory. Using the most advanced test methods to ensure the highest accuracy and test quality, the Consumer Mixed Signal solution achieves high single-site and multi-site throughput in both wafer sort and final test of these highly integrated devices.

Pascal Ronde, Verigy, said:

Consumer demand for mobility and multipurpose devices that integrate audio, video, data and telephony services are sweeping through consumer electronics and shaping the broader semiconductor marketplace…

At the same time, prices for the SoCs that deliver this convergence are dropping 30-40% per year. As a direct consequence of both exploding unit sales and plummeting prices for such devices, manufacturers have no choice but to respond with more multi-site test and ever-lower cost-of-test. It is the growing need of our customers in this business that compelled Verigy to develop the Consumer Mixed Signal solution…

Higher levels of accuracy and DC capabilities in the test system are required to meet the digital test requirements plus the side-by-side testing of performance analog and power management IP cores. The need to ensure known good die driven by new system-in-package (SiP) and multi-chip packaged (MCP) packaging techniques, requires performance test at wafer probe. With new failure mechanisms created by manufacturing at nanometer geometries, the imperative to improve yield is fundamental to recovering the investment in multi-billion-dollar fabs. Cost-effective wafer-level testing has become increasingly important to catch failures earlier in the manufacturing cycle and improve yield.

Verigy incorporates the industry's highest functionality per square centimeter onto single slot cards inserted into the V93000 test head, for smaller tester footprint and lower cost. The Consumer Mixed Signal solution is comprised of the following modular cards:

• MB AV8 card - Multi-Band Audio-Video a generation ahead in analog - for economic flexibility through scalable number of cores and performance ranges. This provides very high utilization through broad application coverage, such as professional audio; baseband IQ; broadband communications; High Definition and Standard Definition TV, STB, DTV and DVD (BluRay and HD-DVD).
• Pin Scale 400 - scalability covers majority of test pins for consumer IC and wafer sort, and majority of interfaces used for consumer ICs, with 100 Mbps entry level scalable to 533+ Mbps per pin, and 224 MVectors per pin.
• DC Scale DPS32 - 32 channels per card for higher multi-site, with multiple power domains and fast synchronous triggering for improved repeatability and highest throughput.
• DC Scale VI32- flexibility to address multiple applications (eFLASH, ePMIC, precision voltage reference) with a single card, scalable from 16 to 32 channels, and pattern-triggered per channel for highest throughput.

The Consumer Mixed Signal solution starts at USD $549,000, and is available now.

More info: Verigy