Strong rebound for semiconductor test

An exclusive interview with a technical leader

By Larry Maloney, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 9/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Mark Jagiela President Semiconductor Test Division Teradyne North Reading, MA Mark Jagiela joined Teradyne in 1982 as a design engineer, developing image-sensor test systems. In 1989, he moved to Tokyo and served as GM of Teradyne's Japan Division. He returned to the US in 1999 as engineering manager for the VLSI Test Division in Agoura Hills, CA. In 2001, he became worldwide marketing manager of Teradyne's semiconductor test products, and in July 2003, he was promoted to president of the Semiconductor Test Division. Jagiela graduated from the University of Michigan with a BSEE. Contributing editor Larry Maloney interviewed Mark Jagiela on new semiconductor test technologies at the Teradyne headquarters in North Reading, MA. Mark Jagiela answers more questions about new test systems and the recovery in semiconductors in the continuation of this article. To read past Viewpoint columns, go to www.tmworld.com/viewpoint.

Q: How would you describe the business recovery in semiconductors?
A: Unlike in some sectors of the economy where recovery is somewhat muted, the rebound in electronics and semiconductors has been breathtaking. From the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter 2010, Teradyne's product orders have grown by over tenfold. Our semiconductor customers need a lot of capacity, and their unit volumes are breaking records. It's a real sprint now for test equipment suppliers and our customers to get shipments to the point where they can meet this strong demand.

Q: What sectors of the semiconductor market show greatest demand?
A: Anything related to wireless communications is very robust. Another very healthy sector is automotive, where electronics content continues to grow with every model year. Anything related to analog, such as analog semiconductors for power management, also is surging. Sectors that are improving more slowly include solid-state image sensors for cameras, as well as semiconductors for PCs, which really did not fall off much during the recession. Business purchases of PCs, however, are starting to ramp up.

Q: What kinds of features do customers want in semiconductor testers?
A: Back in the '90s, equipment builders were chasing frequency. That's what our customers needed to test their new digital devices. That plateaued toward the end of the last decade, when customers began focusing more on the economics of test. We responded with equipment that enabled parallel test for SOCs [systems on a chip]. Today, parallel test for 8, 16, or 32 SOC devices has become the norm. We even see systems that can provide parallel test for 128 devices, in the case of microcontrollers. Customers also want enhanced software capability in test equipment to reduce the time and talent required to create and debug test programs. Today, software engineers make up a bigger portion of Teradyne's product development team than do hardware engineers.

Q: How are these features evident in Teradyne's new UltraFLEX-M tester for high-speed DRAM?
A: Its technology leverages our UltraFLEX platform for testing SOCs. Teradyne had been a high-speed DRAM test supplier in the '80s and '90s but got out of the business. When we decided to reenter the market, we had to bring something different to the party. DRAM test was one sector that was still chasing megahertz because of bandwidth concerns. The frequency needs for graphics and PC-based DRAM keep marching up. You go from DDR2 to DDR3 to DDR4, as well as similar classes of GDDR devices.

Our goal for the UltraFLEX-M was to deliver all the parallelism needed to economically test DRAM. But that was just for starters. We also needed the tester to perform at a frequency level that would allow it to be used not just for the current generation of DRAM—DDR3—but for DDR4 and for advanced graphics devices as well. These capabilities effectively doubled the asset life of the UltraFLEX-M introduced last fall, versus traditional DRAM testers.

Q: How have the acquisitions of Nextest and Eagle Test expanded the Teradyne product line?
A: If you drew a map of all the types of semiconductor devices, we have test equipment that covers the entire range—memories, SOC, digital, analog, and more. With Eagle Test's analog test capabilities and the high-volume, low-cost memory-test expertise we added from Nextest, we don't see a need for any major additions to our portfolio. Our goal now is to apply technology leverage within our own company to do a better job of serving customers.

Read the continuation of this article.