Testing strategies for the long haul: Verigy’s Barnes on semiconductor test
An exclusive interview with a technical leader
Larry Maloney, Contributing Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 4/1/2007
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| Keith Barnes CEO and President Verigy Cupertino, CA Keith Barnes assumed responsibilities as president and CEO of Verigy in May 2006. Prior to taking this position, Barnes was chairman and CEO of Electroglas, a leading company in IC probe manufacturing, and before that, he was chairman and CEO of Integrated Measurement Systems (IMS), an Oregon-based company specializing in mixed-signal and memory-IC verification that was acquired by Credence Systems in 2001. Barnes is active in numerous industry associations, serves on the boards of Cascade Microtech and Clarity Visual Systems, and is a regent at the University of Portland. Contributing editor Larry Maloney spoke with Keith Barnes about automated testing trends in a recent telephone interview. Keith Barnes gives additional comments on curbing test costs, cooperating with EDA companies, and making decisions about ATE in the continuation of this interview. |
A: First, I want to compliment Agilent on the professional approach they took to the spinoff. Agilent made sure there was a transition team working throughout the process, so the spinoff went very well. We went public with the IPO on June 13, 2006, with final distribution of stock to shareholders on October 31.
It has been a huge effort to get to this point, including moving about 26 facilities, launching a new ERP [enterprise resource planning] system, and moving memory-systems manufacturing to Flextronics in Shanghai. Meanwhile, we had phenomenal revenue growth in 2006, and the ramp-up in activity made things even more challenging. This year, we hope to go through a stabilization period to make sure that all the systems we put in place are working correctly.
Q: What are Verigy’s main markets for automated test equipment (ATE)?
A: We focus on testing complex systems on chip (SOCs) through our V93000 product line. We also target complex flash memory and stacked memory solutions with our V5000 product family. In the SOC division, we address several niches, including high-speed I/O, high-speed memory, and very complex mixed-signal SOCs. In memory test, we deal with NOR and NAND flash devices and stacked memory packages. The NAND flash area was new to us in 2006, and we enjoyed a significant expansion of our flash memory business as a result of these new products.
Q: What are some other factors that drove your revenues in 2006?
A: In SOC, we continued to make very good progress in establishing the top IDMs (integrated device manufacturers) as our customers. They tend to focus on very complex SOCs, processors, and the like. We also had good gains in the high-speed memory and in high-speed I/O areas.
Q: How will Verigy guard against the downward cycles that can plague the semiconductor test industry?
A: We put together a business model with three main elements. First is to make sure we innovate and produce new products profitably. Next, we focus on creating an excellent customer experience. The third element is a “focused operating model.” We took a look at the lowest quarters in our business history and set a break-even level at the average of those low points. Conversely, when our industry is doing well and we’re hitting the high-revenue points, we’ve devised a model that’s designed to deliver best-in-class operating income of any company in the industry with a similar makeup to ours.
Q: How can ATE vendors help chip makers bring new products to market faster?
A: Our view of working with customers includes not just high-volume manufacturing (HVM) but also device verification and characterization. We work with customers early on when they’re developing their devices and before they commit to manufacturing. That also helps us work through the prototyping phase on our product design so we are prepared for HVM as our customers commit to that.
Having the ability to work through all these stages helps us get customers to market sooner than is the case with vendors who are concerned only with high-volume manufacturing. Also, our single scalable test platform is usable from product development through manufacturing. So, for customers, there’s no new software to learn, no new system to learn. And that speeds time to market and helps keep test costs in check.
Keith Barnes gives additional comments on curbing test costs, cooperating with EDA companies, and making decisions about ATE in the continuation of this interview.
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