ATE Data Collection - A comprehensive requirements proposal to maximize ROI of test

ATE customers are increasingly viewing a tester that does not facilitate easy and consistent access to the test data as a barrier to their profitability. The data is needed towards various ends like, Statistical Post Processing (SPP) for Die Binning, Reliability improvement, Burn-in Elimination [16], Process/Yield Improvement, Adaptive Control, Product Characterization, Test Floor Statistical Process Control (SPC), Calibration & Test Repeatability [10] to name a few. Subcontractor & Foundry manufacturing have only increased the complexity of the task. The main premise of this paper is that: "Taking the measurement" is the ATE vendor's expertise, "Evaluating the measurement" is the customer's expertise and we have a proposal to clear the confusion and maximize the ROI of test. The paper discusses the current "state-of-theart" in terms of data collection, illustrates the windfall of benefits reaped from utilizing the ATE data and presents a proposal on how to improve the situation.