Month: February 2010

Categories
Work

STDF for test results

The transfer of test results from testers to analysis tools can be complex, and the king of the standard file formats is STDF.
Originally a Teradyne spec, it has become an industry standard, to be owned by SEMI, and has been remodelled to adapt to different tester companies and users of test results. In addition to the standard v4 spec, new specs exist for scan fail data, memory fail data, custom field and record definitions, and rules for merging results. Enough to keep thousands of engineers busy to maintain and build tools to create, modify, convert, and analyze STDF.

Categories
Personal

Preparation for sailing trip

After years of sailing mid-sized yachts with friends and family, I am now planning my first solo trip on a First 27.7 in April.

The preparation for this trip includes safety gear, navigational aids and route plan, meals, cold-weather gear, tools for repairs, first-aid gear, and refresh on solo sailing techniques.

I think this will be my 1st solo trip of many to come, combined with occasional trips with the family in summer.

Categories
Work

Memory BIST analysis

Modern SOC (system on chip) include embedded memories, sometimes tens or hundreds of small memories. Testing these memories for quality involves triggering BIST (buit in self test), and collecting the result, as a pass/fail or as a list of failing adresses.

With Yield loss on the embedded memories increasing to unacceptable levels, engineers need visibility into the failures, with signature analysis to quickly estimate the failure mechanisms, and export of exact locations for physical failure analysis.

Typical failure mechanisms include design errors, voltage or power problems, patterning or related process problems, random defects, electrical variability, and others.