SEMICON 2021 preview: What does a modern chip test lab need?
Latest update time：2021-03-11
Reads：
"Liu Cixin, the author of the science fiction novel series The Three-Body Problem, used the metaphor of 'bow and arrow vs. musket' to describe the technological gap between Earth and the Three-Body civilization:
although the two have similar ranges and can both hit targets 1,500 meters away, their combined performance in terms of power, speed, accuracy, etc. is no longer in the same dimension. This is a gap in technology/engineering theory.
"
In 2021, in the semiconductor field driven by the commercialization of 5G and AI, the complexity and integration of chip design continue to increase. For example, the complexity of 5G chips is 5-10 times higher than that of 4G chips. The design concept of AI chips has also shifted from "general" to "dedicated", "homogeneous" to "heterogeneous", and so on.
Moreover, the pressure on chip design companies to control product launch time and quality, as visible and hidden costs gradually increase, the requirements for chip testing are also getting higher and higher. In the past, semiconductor practitioners could meet the testing needs by placing more than ten instruments on the laboratory table.
As the testing difficulty of 5G and AI chips increases,
traditional testing theories and processes are becoming inefficient and non-reusable
, which is very similar to the use of cold weapons in modern warfare. Perhaps we need to think about the issue of "testing" from a higher dimension.
Lab on a chip moves from traditional concepts to modernization
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The hidden costs of chip testing
On the one hand, chip design companies are burdened by the external environment of greatly increased chip complexity and rapid product launch. On the other hand, they also need to deal with obvious costs such as capital, software, engineering, training, office space, and manpower internally, as well as various hidden costs such as shutdowns due to the epidemic, repeated testing of different processes, underutilized assets, adaptation management, data analysis, etc., making it difficult for companies to implement operational strategies.
The visible and hidden costs of chip design
Therefore, in the next decade in the semiconductor field, we need modern engineering technology and operational concepts to cope with the increasing testing challenges and cost pressures. Today, the world's top design companies are actively promoting the standardization of chip laboratory testing and process efficiency to accelerate the collaboration of different teams such as chip design, testing, and application. NI promotes the concept of modern laboratory , innovates chip R&D processes, and is committed to helping chip design companies accelerate their growth.
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Semiconductor Engineering Technology and Operational Concepts for the Next Decade
The concept of Modern Lab refers to the concept of chip laboratory operation process based on standardization and efficiency. From chip Bring up, Bench feature analysis, and NPI after chip First Silicon, the modern laboratory helps enterprises to standardize this series of processes with efficient and standardized operation methods, helping enterprises to define standards and efficient tool chains from the early design stage, taking operational efficiency as the first goal and accelerating time to market.
Modern Lab is based on NI's advanced software, hardware and connectivity technologies
to transform traditional benchtop test methods into a holistic automated test solution that accelerates chip verification and fully utilizes data to achieve verification purposes:
(1) Improve validation insights through effective use of test data;
(2) Overall automation to eliminate manual tasks and human errors;
(3) Greatly reduce time and cost through reusable software framework.
Among them, Modern Lab uses cloud services to access remote system management, automated analysis and reporting of cross-program data sets at the software level, and builds a scalable system suitable for various new types of tests on hardware to achieve control and data collection of all I/Os, and uses a standard interface between DUT and hardware, so that the program interface can also be reused.
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Give engineers freedom through standardization
Traditional R&D and testing laboratories are filled with numerous instruments with different specifications, standards and interfaces, which make engineers who should focus on R&D be comfortable with cables and instrument interfaces, consuming a lot of time and energy, thus hindering the pace of innovation of engineers. Standardization of hardware interfaces is a good start for a laboratory to move towards modernization, and then realize data standardization on the basis of software standardization.
Based on the advantages of software and hardware standardization, NI Modern Lab further promotes data standardization and accelerates the modernization of chip companies' laboratories:
it frees engineers from the trouble of building test instruments and software frameworks, thereby freeing up their hands and allowing them to focus on key research and testing work; it does not affect the progress of project development and testing due to changes in engineers and the time required to familiarize themselves with test codes and processes that vary from person to person; at the same time, these standardized data can be read and downloaded online in real time, making it easier for chip companies to establish efficient global R&D centers and maximize R&D and testing efficiency.
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Accelerate Time-to-Market Based on Modern Lab
Based on hardware solutions such as modular equipment assets, fast debugging, and automated scalability, as well as software advantages such as large-scale software reuse, interactive learning, automated test and measurement, deployed workstation management, and data analysis and reporting platforms, NI Modern Lab provides chip design customers with advanced data analysis capabilities, 7x24 automated verification, a scalable framework from prototype to mass production, remote access, and many other advantages in one test system to help customers build modern laboratories:
(1) Implement a standard verification environment for all engineers;
(2) Improve efficiency and accelerate time to market;
(3) Improve equipment quality and reduce support burden.
SEMICON China (March 17-19)
You can visit SEMICON China 2021 to discuss the innovative future of modern laboratories with NI. The latest test solutions such as digital prototype verification, mixed-signal chip verification, WiFi 6/7 and 5GDPD, wafer-level reliability, etc. will also be presented one by one. Please pay attention to the NI booth (N2559).
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