Date: 06/11/2012

ST uses Synopsys TetraMAX ATPG and Yield Explorer to ramp chip yield

Synopsys, has announced that STMicroelectronics (ST) has adopted Synopsys' volume diagnostics solution company-wide for faster yield ramp.
The solution is comprised of two integrated products from Synopsys: the TetraMAX ATPG and Yield Explorer tools. TetraMAX ATPG provides physical diagnostics that enable the localization of defects on chips that fail logic scan tests. Yield Explorer analyzes the defect locations from multiple failing chips and correlates them with design data to prioritize systematic yield issues and guide physical failure analysis.

"Recognizing that subtle systematic failures are critical to yield ramp at nanometer process nodes, we collaborated with Synopsys to bring design, test and manufacturing data together in volume diagnostics," said Roberto Mattiuzzo, SoC Test and Diagnosis manager at STMicroelectronics' Central CAD and Design Solutions. "Highly accurate physical diagnostics from TetraMAX ATPG and Yield Explorer's design-centric data analysis and correlation capabilities have allowed us to perform faster failure analysis and fab process tuning. Among other benefits, this has resulted in significant improvements in root cause isolation effectiveness hence leading to yield improvements across multiple products/technologies."

"Yield Explorer easily accommodates the wide variety of yield analysis requirements across our business units and is fully customizable to suit their range of data types, analysis and reporting preferences," said Andrea Burri, Supply Chain Solutions director at STMicroelectronics' Company Central Planning. "In addition to being deployed for volume diagnostics, Yield Explorer will be used by product engineers across ST to perform traditional yield analyses based on functional, parametric and embedded memory tests."

"Systematic yield loss due to design-process interactions requires complex analyses incorporating many different types of design data," said Howard Ko, senior vice president and general manager of the Silicon Engineering Group at Synopsys. "ST is a pioneer in recognizing volume diagnostics as the most effective method to bring design data into yield analysis. ST and Synopsys have collaborated in refining the Yield Explorer usage and TetraMAX ATPG diagnostics during all phases of new product yield ramp so that design and product engineers may easily use it across a wide range of products."