Chip testing usually includes the following steps: Design Verification Testing (Design Verification Testing): In the design phase, a series of simulation and verification tests are used to ensure the correctness and feasibility of the design. These tests may include board layout, logic analysis, timing analysis, etc. Prototype Verification Testing: During the prototype development phase, the hardware part of the design is actually tested to verify its functionality and performance. This may include unit testing, integration testing, system testing, etc. Production Verification Testing: Before mass production, a comprehensive test is performed on the produced chips to ensure that they meet specification requirements and quality standards. This may include production line testing, environmental testing, reliability testing, etc. Fault Analysis and Repair: During the production process, if there is a problem with the chip, it needs to be analyzed and repaired. This may include testing and repairing the chip using specialized equipment and tools. Final Testing: Before the chip is delivered to the customer, the final comprehensive test is carried out to ensure that the quality and performance of the product meet expectations. This may include functional testing, performance testing, compatibility testing, etc. Taking the processor as an example, FinalTest can be divided into two steps:
1. Automatic Test Equipment (ATE)
2. System Level Testing (SLT)
The ATE test generally takes a few seconds, while the SLT takes several hours. The existence of ATE greatly reduces the chip test time.
ATE is responsible for a large number of projects, and there is a strong logical correlation. Tests must be performed in sequence, and test items in the latter column may be skipped for the test results in the first column. The contents of these items are company secrets, such as power supply detection, pin DC detection, test logic (usually JTAG) detection, burn-in, physical connection PHY detection, IP internal detection (including Scan, BIST, Function, etc.) , IP IO detection (such as DDR, SATA, PLL, PCIE, Display, etc.), auxiliary function detection (such as thermal characteristics, fuses, etc.). These test items will give Pass/Fail, and it is the job of the test engineer to analyze the chip's physique based on these Pass/Fail.
SLT is logically simpler. Install the chip on the motherboard, configure the memory and peripherals, start an operating system, and then use the software to test the machine, record the results and compare them. In addition, check the BIOS related items and so on. And all these tasks need to be designed by chip design engineers before tape-out. The test work is in charge of the dedicated circuit in the chip. The construction of this part of the circuit is done by DFT engineers. ten thousand.
Whether these measurements can normally detect the function of the chip needs to be guaranteed by product development engineers. In addition, test engineers, product engineers, and assistants are needed to ensure that the production tasks of tens of thousands of chips per day will not be delayed due to test logic bugs. Considering that each iteration of the test version is hundreds of thousands of lines of code, it is guaranteed that the code cannot make mistakes. It requires hundreds of test engineers to work together, which is not an assembly line worker, so testing is time-consuming and labor-intensive. In fact, the cost of testing chips of many large companies is already close to the cost of R&D.
Therefore, the ATECLOUD intelligent cloud test platform, which has more advantages than traditional automated chip testing equipment, is the best choice for most companies to conduct chip automated testing .
ATECLOUD is a control system for intelligent testing. Mainly used for automated testing of program-controlled equipment, ATECLOUD can solve all the pain points of traditional automated testing. ATECLOUD can perfectly solve the problems of long development cycle/high cost/poor flexibility/troublesome deployment/data security in traditional automated testing.
As a localized intelligent test platform, ATECLOUD has the following advantages:
fast:
Quickly set up test steps, customers know their own test process best, write by themselves and optimize the test process at any time to start using data immediately.
flexible:
1. Flexible support for various interface protocols;
2. Flexible configuration of data processing and discrimination algorithms, which can support custom calculation formulas;
3. Flexible definition of test reports;
4. Flexible monitoring and testing process (computer/tablet/monitoring large screen) intelligent analysis of test data: online analysis/customized data Kanban - can improve product quality, improve the testing process for leaders to see and facilitate management.
Safety:
1. Communication security (the network link adopts https encrypted transmission;
2. Data security (multi-node database);
3. Application deployment.