Third party testing institutions: the importance of IC chip testing to the semiconductor industry

Date：2022-01-19 15:08:58Views：2014

With the rapid development of chip design industry, a large number of chip types have been designed, but only a few of them will be large-scale streaming, and many chips are still in the design stage. This means that a large number of chip testing requirements have not been met. For a long time, the chip testing industry has been regarded as a part of chip packaging and testing. The real situation is that the traditional integrated sealing and testing enterprises are not enough to meet the current needs.

What is chip testing?

As the name suggests, chip testing is a link in the process of chip manufacturing in which the testing manufacturer tests the semi-finished chip products in production through professional instruments, so as to improve the yield.

Every chip entering the market must be tested before it can be finally listed. Therefore, the chip testing link actually has a huge market demand. Some people think that testing is just a routine after chip packaging, but in fact its value is far more than that.

According to the manufacturing process, chip testing can be divided into wafer testing (referred to as intermediate testing) and finished product testing (referred to as finished testing). Their demands are to ensure the improvement of the yield of end products, so as to achieve the purpose of cost control.

Intermediate test means that after the wafer manufacturing is completed, the testing manufacturer tests the electrical capacity and circuit function of each chip on the wafer to ensure that the wafer can realize the circuit function of the chip. Intermediate test is the last step before the wafer is sent to the packaging factory, which directly determines the quality of packaging raw materials.

The final test is the final test after chip packaging. Based on the differences of chip types, the test nodes in the chip packaging process are also different, and the test schemes and test procedures are also different. Therefore, the test is more inclined to provide customized services for customers, and its industrial added value is higher than that of the pilot test.

At the same time, according to the technical parameters of the test equipment, chip testing can be divided into high-end test platform and middle-end test platform. The high-end test platform must have a test frequency higher than 100MHz and the number of channels greater than 512pin; Devices below the above requirements are attributed to the mid-range test platform.

The high-end test platform is mainly used to test SOC, FPGA, AI and other chips. The investment amount is high, the stock in the domestic market is limited, and has a certain competitive moat. The mid-range test platform is mainly used in conventional analog chips. Although the technical difficulty is not high, the test flow is very large.

Overall, chip testing is gradually developing to high-end, which will become a new growth point for chip testing enterprises in the future.

The third-party chip testing company can launch customized testing services according to customer needs to meet customers' stringent requirements on chip function, performance and quality. During the testing process, customers can also timely adjust chip design ideas according to the feedback of independent testing companies to avoid waste caused by large-scale streaming.

Compared with the traditional integrated sealing and testing manufacturers, the third-party testing manufacturers have three advantages.

First of all, third-party test manufacturers do not participate in other processes of chip manufacturing, so there is no inclination in their position. They can give objective and fair suggestions on all potential problems of chip design, streaming and packaging, and help Chinese chip enterprises develop in a more professional way.

Secondly, chip testing has shown a trend of gradual high-end, with the characteristics of high technology content and knowledge intensive. It is difficult for traditional seal testing enterprises to have enough funds and energy to deal with the replacement of the industry. Independent third-party testing enterprises focus on finer granulation, which can focus on the forefront of the industry and further promote the development of China's chip industry.

At the same time, the requirements of packaging and testing for R & D personnel are totally different. The traditional sealing and testing enterprises pay more attention to the research of packaging process, while the third party testing company specializes in the combination of software and hardware.

Finally, third-party testing enterprises can provide chip enterprises with more high-quality value-added services, including integrated circuit test scheme development, wafer test services, chip finished product test services and supporting services related to integrated circuit test. Through professional testing, the final effect of chip products is improved.

As an indispensable part of the semiconductor industry chain, chip testing is the basis to determine whether a chip can be adopted by the market and recognized. At present, how to improve the efficiency of chip testing and control the quality of chip testing has become the focus of the industry.