Multithreading and Multitasking Improves Wireless IC Production
Testing  Multithreading and Multitasking Improves Wireless IC
Production Testing  By Joe Kelly, Verigy U.S., Inc.  Production
testing of RF-containing SOC (System on a Chip) devices for
wireless communications has changed a lot over the past few
years, primarily driven by economic factors.  Of particular
note, semiconductor manufacturers have worked with ATE vendors
to increase the amount that devices can be tested in parallel in
order to better utilize their capital equipment.  The cost of
testing (referred to as Cost of Test or COT) can be up to 5% of
the overall cost of manufacturing integrated wireless RF-
containing SOCs.  From a test engineer’s point of view, two key
measures of COT are parallel test efficiency and throughput
(units tested in an amount of time).  Often, only multi-site
efficiency is considered, but in reality, throughput is the more
important factor because it directly equates to production
yield.  These metrics drive develo