semiconductor design community

André van de Geijn

Collaboratism

People, Processes and Profitabilityin the Semiconductor Assembly and Test Business

denotes a distinctive system of beliefs, myth, doctrine or theory that guides a social movement, institution, class or group.

-ism

collaborateis a recursive process where two or more people or organizations

work together on common goals.

People, Processes and Profitability

in the Semiconductor Assembly and Test

Business.

Business Model

PeopleDesign, test, diffusion, process, quality, assembly, packaging, IT, marketing - engineers, managers, etc.

YOU !

Process ≠ Paperstack !But individual steps: design - production - etc., supporting the creation of a product.

Profitability

Development Introduction Growth Maturity Decline

Sales

Profit

Loss

Money

Time

Product Life Cycle = Investment followed by a profit.Where profit is bigger than investment.

Semiconductors = ProductsWhich end up in:Memory, Bankcards, CPU, Car-ABS etc.

Business = Advantageover Competition

by Key DifferentiatorsFunctionality

Cost

Quality

Time-to-Market

Key Differentiators Example

ABS Module priority:

1. Quality

2. Functionality

3. Time-to-market

4. Cost

Key Differentiators

Influence each other!

★ Quality

★ Functionality

★ Time-to-market

★ Cost

Sales

Profit

Loss

Money

Time

B

C

A

The story of being too late:Cost impact with a delay in time-to-market:Bigger loss, followed by less ‘sales and profit’

Product Life Cycle

Influence each other!

★ Loss = Investment

★ Sales

★ Profit

Package Product Life CycleNumber of connectors, package size, package technology, end-product functionality.

Package time-to-market:

Development Introduction Growth Maturity Decline

Sales

Profit

Loss

Money

Time

A new product might first be placed in the market with available packages: to start sales......

Sales

Profit

Loss

Money

Time

B

C

A

Package time-to-market:......and later introduced in a smaller package, to gain more market share: more sales.

Package differentiator

Same function, but:

Different package

Means:

Different process

Different workflows

Different application

Processes, Workflows and Applications, are not only different, but they also interact with each other!

...and with the other aspects...

...this needs collaboration...

...and that is written in the book.

WorkflowsProcesses Applications

ProcessesIndividual steps, supporting the creation of an end-product.

Some Process Examples

Building a skyscraper

Design by architect

Bill of materials

Assemble the building

Processes

Building: key differentiators

Take care of the cost, functionality, quality and time-to-market.

Is it a nomad shelter, your villa, or an office building to host 1000 employees?

Influences the processes

B

A

Vdd

A

Z

B

Vss

Produce a semiconductor end-product

Design the product

VHDL creation

Transistor level

Test program

Lay-out

Mask creation

Processes

Produce a semiconductor end-product

Design the product

Diffuse the circuit

Create transistors

Create connections

PCM testing

Visual inspection

Processes

ProcessesProduce a semiconductor end-product

Design the product

Diffuse the circuit

Assembly and test

Wafer test

Die attach

Wire bonding

Etc. See book!

Commonality:Buildings & Semiconductors

Efficiency: it is NOT likely that a single person or company can fulfill all needed process steps by itself!

It is all based on core competences.

CollaborateA person working on a single process, needs to be aware of:

the outputs of the previous process.

the inputs of the next process.

This will improve your product and therefore business.

WorkflowsConnect the individual process steps.

Design Di!usion Assembly/Test

Semiconductor WorkflowConnects the top-level processes.


Focus on TestTest devices, and remove fail devices.

Test Quality

Inking

!

"

#$ %

&

Standard Test WorkflowBuild up by three processes.Different workflows possible.


Extended WorkflowDifferent processes influence each other.

Edge Die

Ugly Die

PCM Die

Test Analysis

Quality Merge

!

"

#

$

%

&

Extended Test WorkflowBuild up by four processes, merge results of diffusion with assembly/test processes.


Focus on TestTest time reduction, by parallel testing.

Test time reduction

Test several products at once

Reduces costly test time

For small products

For products with long test time

Think of up to 87% cost reduction with 8 products parallel testing!

Test timereduction

This needs special hardware, to expand tester capacity.

And special software for optimized path finding.

Remember the costs Key Differentiator!

Invest to create a ‘bigger’ profit.

Application influenceOne application for wafer test results

One application for merge

One application for analysis

One application for test time reduction

Why not one application to support all workflows !


Test-program developmentGoes over all three main processes !

Developa test

program...

...to find diffusion failures...

...and can be used by test equipment...

...to prevent use of failing

end-products.

Test Program

Test Library

Tester Library

Tester Operating System

Test program stack

A test program relies heavily on the underlaying parts.

Tester Library Test Library Test Program

Tester librarydevelopment

Tester libraryrelease

Test librarydevelopment

Test libraryrelease

Test programengineering

development

Test programproduction

development

Test programproduction

release

Release workflowA released test program for production, relies on a released tester library, and released test library.

Distribution by e-mailIn many cases, a released test program, tester library, and test library rely on e-mail.

CollaborationNeed for an application to bring different groups of engineers, internal and external, together

ApplicationsSupport the workflows:The lubricant that helps to run the processes smoothly.

Create User Groups

Collect Process Steps Details

Collect Business Details

Group User Needs

Create Application Land-scape

Create Roadmap

Create and Roll-out Ap-plications

Application DevelopmentWorkflow

A workflow to get the needs on the table, which support the business.

Collect requirements

Create the roadmaps.

Start the implementation.

Roll-out of applications.

For granted users only.

To collect requirements.

Discuss requests and solutions.

Accessible from different locations.

Store source code.

Distribution.

One repository

For applications, like the wafer map application.

For test programs, test libraries, and tester libraries.

Datasheet development process.

Enables collaboration between internal and external engineers, and different locations, for different purposes.

One repository

Collaboration applicationThe book goes into detail of TeamForge, an application that looks like CollabNet.

Money

Time

BasicFunctionality

IntermediateFunctionality

AdvancedFunctionality

Profit

Loss

Establish applications in phases,to support the business as soon as possible.

How to establish applications

Different packages

Basic package with pins

Followed by package with terminals

Example 1: Fab-IT

Wafer maps

Basic functionality

Intermediate functionality

Advanced functionality

Example 1: Fab-IT

Money

Time

BasicFunctionality

IntermediateFunctionality

AdvancedFunctionality

Profit

Loss

Business model generation in a collaborative way.It’s all about collaboration

Example 2: ReuseCan - Lin SBCFlexRay

Collaboration is the KEY ! Between design - diffusion - assembly and test.

With subcontractors: at the begin, the end, and in the value chain.

With customers.

Define the efficient cores, and let them collaborate, towards a profitable business.

Collaboratism

Collaboratism

Think about the whole value chain,who should do what, who is good in what!

These all create a profitable business,based on efficiency and competitiveness.

“Collaboratism shows us the amazingly tight integration and collaboration between

design, test, and assembly engineers and processes in the semiconductor industry.

It’s a deep-dive into a world most of us would never see - making clear just how much genius went into making the brains of devices we unthinkingly depend upon every day.”

—Brian Behlendorf, founder of the Apache Software Foundation