Semicon West: What leading vendors predict
Executives from LTX-Credence, Advantest America, Verigy, and Teradyne shared their visions for the future of the semiconductor test industry.
Gail Flower, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 7/28/2009 11:00:00 AM
| Read more Semicon West coverage |
Rick Nelson, editor in chief of Test & Measurement World, moderated a panel of top industry executives as they shared their visions for the semiconductor test industry during the Executive Test Summit held on Tuesday, July 14, during Semicon West 2009.
It was a summit of four presidents. Dave Tacelli, CEO and president of LTX-Credence; R. Keith Lee, president and CEO of Advantest America; Mark Jagiela, president of the Semiconductor Test Division of Teradyne; and Keith Barnes, chairman, CEO, and president of Verigy. The four took turns sharing their vision for the industry and answering questions from the audience. This edited transcript highlights the key points that were made during the discussion.
Nelson began by saying that these are unprecedented economic challenges facing the test industry. During times of difficulty, he noted, innovation, new business models, new R&D strategies, and unusual approaches often emerge.
Nelson: We are mired in tough economic times, times that require innovation. How can we meet the challenge to innovate during the down times?
Tacelli: LTX-Credence is focused on keeping down the cost of test.
Lee: Advantest America has $1 billion in cash reserved to maintain a strong R&D performance.
Jagiela: At Teradyne, we cut back R&D spending through 2010.
Barnes: At Verigy, our R&D budget is under some pressure, but we're still committed to innovation. New products from our EDA companies have helped.
Nelson: Which areas of test will you focus on?
Barnes: Verigy just bought a probe-card company. We're expanding by adding adding organic and inorganic applications to our company. During this slow period is a good time to consider acquisitions.
Jagiela: It looks like Teradyne and Advantest will overlap and compete in pure test. Competition will increase between test companies for tools, time-to-market, yield enhancements, and other areas, too.
Lee: From a customer's perspective, OSATs [outsourced semiconductor assembly and test firms] are asking for digital, RF, mixed-signal, and comprehensive-type test equipment.
Tacelli: True, the goal is to differentiate. You've got to develop areas of strength to come out of a depressed economy.
Audience Question: Isn't the area of testers over? Shouldn't we be embedding test IP rather than using more testers?
Jagiela: We are embedding more daily. What we need is to improve quality, but the need for test is not over.
Barnes: Someday, embedded testing will take over, but this won't even begin for another five years or so. The general SOC [system-on-chip] customer doesn't have enough tools in digital now. In analog, it is nowhere near the era of eliminating testers.
Tacelli: I see tester companies embedding more and more test into components as well.
Jagiela: Even Intel hasn't eliminated test.
Lee: One-hundred percent test is the holy grail. We will see simplified testing and more integration.
Nelson: Would your company support more built-in test?
Barnes: People want to have built-in self-test and better quality out of their ICs. We have to change our R&D structure though, and that takes years.
Tacelli: If a customer demands built-in test, we will get more involved.
Lee: The degree and frequency of embedded test IP will be measured by customer demands.
Jagiela: Not that it won't happen, but there's such a proliferation of differences, that it will take some time.
Barnes: Each of the EDA vendors has a partial solution to test. There are lots of specialty solutions and EDA test companies doing internal tests.
Lee: The days of "big iron" are over. Different test methodologies, such as parallel test, are taking hold.
Jagiela: The bigness of the iron has changed.
Barnes: Testing goes from 500 to 1000 pins and covers all sorts of speeds. Now SOC customers have acceptable tests. Higher and lower complexities are both in market demand.
Tacelli: Now the focus in on just-enough test driven by the need to lower the cost of test. We, the vendors, need to learn how to make money while supplying just-enough test.
Barnes: Testers collect so much data, and there's so little done with it. Figuring out what's wrong can help improve yields.
Jagiela: Software has optimized test so that adaptive test has improved the situation.
Tacelli: Fitting exactly what the customer needs is important to us.
Audience Question: What challenges do your companies need to meet to grow and survive?
Tacelli: There are lots of challenges—new products, market points, technological solutions, training people. How much should we outsource is also a decision that we need to make.
Lee: We need to invest in the right R&D areas.
Jagiela: The cost of test and diagnostic tools need to reduce while innovations improve.
Barnes: We need to continue with the next generation of products always, and of course, cut cost out of the product.
Audience Question: Will there be more system-level test in the future?
Barnes: We will work with companies on that. We see higher levels of integration coming.
Lee: System-level test is going back to package-level test. Both are increasing.
Nelson: What do customers want?
Tacelli: It's all about where the technology is going and working on future designs with customer direction.
Lee: Advantest has a healthy market test and a robust R&D budget.
Barnes: Just think about today's IC designs. Working with EDA companies is critical.
Jagiela: It's a 13-year process to predict what customers will need.
Audience Question: The ATE market isn't just about growth, yield analysis, software, and adaptive test.
Barnes: Right. The market is shrinking now, but it will grow again next year. We hire twice as many software engineers as hardware engineers now. The biggest problem is to help customers increase yields and to share in the gains.
Tacelli: If customers see value, they will pay. It's up to us to use DFT [design-for-test] tools and show value. The industry is changing from "big iron" to more software.
Jagiela: We need to produce the best of everything and change the profile of test going forward.
Lee: On-time delivery is critical. Advantest is vertically integrated with in-house capability. Parallel test and SOC test are areas of growth for us. Also, the semiconductor content of cars is important in RF wireless, power, and flash.
Jagiela: I'm proud of being part of the test industry. Bringing down the cost of test and handling technology challenges is important to all of us.
Barnes: It is an exciting time for all of us. There are so many products and really cool technologies. The next couple of years will be focused on growth.
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