Automated spike analysis for IC production testing solutions

Abstract

When a semiconductor company delivers a component to a customer, this component has to work perfectly. A series of tests is carried out at the end of the production line to ensure that the final product is not flawed.

One takes care of potential damages that can be caused to the component during testing. Undesirable high frequency voltage spikes can damage the component during the test sequence. These have to be detected during the validation of the test sequence and suppressed.

In this document, two main goals are developed. First, the design and the creation of an automated way of testing a sequence of tests to ensure that no spikes are submitted to the tested component. Secondly, the research and the implementation of an automated way of spike source localization to support the test engineer.

To reach the first goal of the thesis, several high frequency PCBs as well as an acquisition program controlling a PC-based oscilloscope were designed and created. To reach the second goal of the thesis, a mechanism was conceived to synchronize the test equipment via TCP/IP with the computer that runs the acquisition program.

Finally, the tool created in the framework of this master thesis is able to detect spikes and localize tests that produces these spikes, allowing the test engineer to work more efficiently. A job that lasted, initially, days or weeks can now be accomplished within hours.