Detecting a defective unit is often only part of the job. Another important aspect of test economics that must be considered is the cost of locating and replacing defective parts. Consider again the board with 10 integrated circuits. If it is found to be defective, then it is necessary to locate the part that has failed, a time-consuming and error-prone operation. Replacing suspect components that have been soldered onto a PCB can introduce new…
However, if devices are tested, feature sizes can be reduced and more die will fit on each wafer. Even after the die are tested and defective die are discarded, the number of good die per wafer exceeds the number available at the larger feature sizes. The benefit in terms of increasing numbers of good die obtainable from each wafer far outweighs the cost of testing the die in order to identify those that are defective. Point B on the graph corr…
The table depicted shows test cost broken down into four categories some of which are one-time, non recurring costs whereas others are recurring costs. Test preparation includes costs related to development of the test programs as well as some potential costs incurred during design of the DFT features. DFT-related costs are directed toward improving access to the basic functionality of the design in order to simplify the creation of test program…
What are the factors that influence the cost of test? Quality and test costs are related, but they are not inverse of one another. As we shall see, an investment in a higher-quality test often pays dividends during the test cycle. Test related costs for ICs and PCBs include both time and resource. As pointed out in previous sections, for some products the failure to reach a market window early in the life cycle of the product can cause significa…
