Semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857) is pilot testing a next-generation solution for performing both high-speed scan testing and software-driven functional device testing on the V93000 platform by leveraging the existing high-speed serial I/O interfaces on advanced integrated circuits (ICs). This novel approach can correlate scan testing results between established and new test routines, boot up and execute on-chip test software and achieve a seamless end-to-end data flow in conjunction with Advantest’s partners in electronic design automation (EDA).
The new capabilities are being developed on a new, modular card architecture that is expected to be broadly available next year. The V93000 platform will be able to quickly and cost-effectively handle the growing volume of scan test data resulting from increasing gate counts in today’s highly integrated semiconductors. The new methodologies also will be used to perform system-level-type functional testing of the complex interactions among numerous cores within system-on-chip (SoC) devices, including the communication to an external host. This will add to structural test coverage and facilitate the correlation between automated test equipment (ATE) and system-level testing (SLT). Together, these innovations will help bring software-based functional testing into the production environment, where potential defects can be identified earlier during wafer-sort and packaged-device testing.
“Today’s growing design sizes and complexities are pushing the limits of test bandwidth capacity,” said Amit Sanghani, senior vice president, Hardware Analytics and Test Group at Synopsys. “Anticipating the need for high-speed tests, Synopsys has collaborated with Advantest to bring to market integrated solutions that represent the industry’s first functional interface-based, high-bandwidth test solution, providing our customers accelerated test times while maintaining comprehensive test coverage and enabling software-based functional tests.”
“Working with Synopsys and other companies in the EDA sector, we are making it possible to leverage test data from design through manufacturing to validate highly complex, new device designs in all stages of the manufacturing process,” said Juergen Serrer, managing executive officer responsible for Advantest’s V93000 Business Unit. “This will allow us to provide customers with more options in their overall test strategies while we address growing global markets for high-end digital products, including smart-phone application processors, MPUs and AI accelerators.”
