Partnership provides chip quality boost

The co-operation between Q-Star Test and Source III has already led to the establishment of a push-button automated WGL-based VTRAN flow.

Q-Star Test and Source III have formed a strategic partnership with the aim of reducing test engineering effort and offering improved test validation and faster test conversion for enhanced chip quality.

Q-Star Test offers Iddx and Issx monitor solutions, supporting true Iddq, delta Iddq, Iddt and analogue Idd and the complementary Issx test strategies applicable to digital, analogue and mixed signal circuits.

Q-Star Test's measurement hardware is ATE-independent and outperforms other available ATE-related Idd test hardware by at least a factor of 100.

The hardware solutions are complemented with application and test strategy related consulting and training services.

Source III simulation and test data management tools provide for quick and easy creation of simulation vector data (VGEN), translation between over 30 simulator/ATPG formats and numerous tester formats (VTRAN) and verification/analysis of simulation data files (VCAP).

All Source III products are supported on Sun Solaris, HPUX and Linux (32 and 64bit) platforms.

The partnership targets the automated insertion of Q-Star Test Ixxx module control using Source III's VTRAN tool into the test pattern data, either when generating a test program starting from ATPG data or when translating from one ATE format to another.

The co-operation between the companies has already led to the establishment of a push-button automated WGL-based VTRAN flow.

It allows automated insertion of Q-Star Test module control into the test pattern data, resulting in a ready to use test program.

Current work is aimed at setting up a similar STIL- based flow.

"The realisation of the automated WGL based VTRAN module control insertion flow drastically reduces test engineering efforts when using Q-Star Test products and brings a high-level, easy to use push-button solution, eliminating human errors and related test pattern debugging efforts" according to Dr Hans Manhaeve, Q Star Test's President and CEO.

"In addition, such an approach is platform-independent and paves the way to ensuring high-quality testing at minimal cost".

"We see this partnership as a tremendous opportunity to help the semiconductor industry find effective ways to control test costs".

"Adding this functionality to our VTRAN tool helps our customers to shorten engineering time and easily endorse advanced Iddx and Issx test methodologies" said John Cosley, Source III's President and CEO.

"From this perspective, the co-operation between Source III and Q-Star Test provides solutions that overcome issues and challenges surrounding advanced semiconductor test".

By combining Source III's software solutions with Q-Star Test's measurement hardware, an easy route is created toward the implementation of a (supply) current-based test strategy applicable in a production test environment.

Customers will benefit from a reduction of test engineering efforts, test program debug time, test time and costs and an improvement of product quality.

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