Partner Introduction ～ATE Service Corporation～
Cloud Testing Service has established partnerships with various service providers who respond to a variety of measurement needs. ATE Service Corporation is one of these important partners. We spoke with Mr. Kobayashi, President and CEO of ATE Service Corporation about the company and its strengths.
President Kobayashi
CTS： ATE Service Corporation has a proven track record in the semiconductor test industry. Could you give us a brief overview of your business?
President Kobayashi: ATE Service Corporation provides engineering services for semiconductor test, such as developing LSI test programs and measurement jig. Our main strength is a short Turn-Around-Time (TAT) and low prices on semiconductor design and evaluation measurement solutions.
CTS： ATE Service Corporation will recommend CTS as a semiconductor test platform when they build a test environment for a customer. What kind of impact does CTS have on your business?
President Kobayashi: The cost to build a semiconductor test environment consists of the following 3 items;
- Jig
- Tester
- Test program development
Until the advent of CTS, tester costs accounted for 60-70% of the total budget. With CTS the customer is no longer required to purchase a tester. Therefore, customers can build a semiconductor test environment at less than half the cost of a traditional setup. This revolutionized the view that semiconductor test has to be expensive.
Now ATE Service Corporation can develop a solid, affordable solution that includes a tester. When preparing a prototype evaluation environment, the customer no longer focuses on which tester to use, but rather on tester function and measurement results. In such cases, ATE Service Corporation can develop a test solution using CTS that delivers the exact same environment as any other ATE system. Since the solution developed at ATE Service Corporation is exactly the same as the delivered solution, there are no complications caused by environmental changes. And, we are now able to deliver a short TAT, low cost and high quality solutions since we no longer have to rent or purchase a development tester.
CTS： What is ATE Service’s strength in regards to semiconductor engineering solutions?
President Kobayashi: We have knowledge and expertise in the following areas;
- High speed digital, such as MIPI, HDMI, USB and SerDes
- BOST, such as IDDQ measurement modules
- Jig solutions
We can build low cost measurement environments for high-speed digital by combining CTS with external modules, regardless if it is difficult to evaluate it with a stand-alone CTS system. And recently, we can do IDDQ measurement, which requires very high accuracy.
Measuring semiconductor test via jig does not always meet the required accuracy. In such cases, a measurement instrument should be located near the DUT, which is a BOST solution. ATE Service Corporation has a high accuracy module for IDDQ measurement. By using this module, high resolution IDDQ measurement is enabled.
Regarding jig, ATE Service Corporation can provide desktop DUT heating and cooling systems with Peltier, a basic device handler, interposer and device socket used for evaluation. The standard model of a DUT heating and cooling system, together with Peltier, can control the temperature from -30℃ - +150℃, which is suitable for thermal evaluation on design verification. The basic device handler for evaluation is good for sorting hundreds of devices necessary for sample delivery.
CTS： The DUT heating and cooling system with Peltier was displayed at SEMICON JAPAN 2015. The CloudTesting™ Station CX1000P, which was integrated with the DUT heating and cooling system, was also displayed on the ATE Service Corporation booth.
Display on the ATE Service Corporation booth at SEMICON JAPAN 2015
The black box pictured on the right is the desktop DUT heating and cooling system
President Kobayashi: Previously, it was necessary to prepare expensive semiconductor tester and thermal control systems to evaluate thermal characteristics, which is not easy. But now we can build a thermal characteristics evaluation environment at once-unthinkable extremely low cost. As a result, customers who once gave up evaluating because of the high cost can now use this system to achieve their objectives.
Both ATE Service Corporation and Cloud Testing Service are solution providers that don’t sell equipment. The CTS platform achieves a paradigm shift from physical possession of an asset to a licensing agreement. Our goal is to provide customers with a high quality combined CTS and ATE Service Corporation solution.
More information can be found on the ATE Service Corporation website. (http://www.ate.co.jp/fmhp2en/)
If you have any questions related to CTS, please contact us at;
https://www.cts-advantest.com/us/inquiries/new