NIWOT, Colo., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The Semiconductor Test Consortium,
Inc. (STC), the leading proponent of the development and adoption of
value-added open test standards that benefit the semiconductor industry,
today announced that they have created two new working groups and expanded
the charter of an existing working group. The STC has now created seven
working groups in total-to meet industry interest and demand. The newly
created and expanded working groups are centered on portable test
instrument module (PTIM), yield enhancement and the standard test interface
language (STIL).
The STC formally kicked-off the PTIM Working Group with the charter to
leverage the broad set of existing open standard test instruments for use
in the automated test equipment (ATE) environment. This effort will enable
rapid integration of the more than 1500 PXI, and other instrument types
(VXI, LXI, and etc.), into the ATE environment. Specifically, PTIM main
focus will be to develop guidelines and standards to facilitate a common
hardware and software interface, and to accelerate the integration of these
new instruments into the ATE environment.
The STC created the Yield Enhancement Working Group to work
collaboratively with other standards bodies to develop an industry standard
tester interface for third party software tools. Keith Arnold, Pintail
Technologies' Chief Technical Officer will chair this new working group.
The group's initial focus will be to provide a common tester interface for
yield enhancement tools, although provisions will be made to support other
types of tools. The effort is expected to enable performance enhancements
that will be required for the industry's rapidly expanding production data
volume. This standard is also expected to substantially reduce the effort
required to port any third party software tool across multiple tester
platforms.
Adoption of IEEE STIL standard continues with international acceptance
of this standard. In line with the expanding adoption of STIL, the STC has
decided to expand their STIL working group participation and charter. The
working group's new chairs are from Renesas in Japan and Synopsys in the
U.S. Working group efforts to date include: benchmarking STIL readers,
development of a STIL validator and test suites, and promotion of STIL
tools. The working group's scope now encompasses the worldwide use of the
IEEE STIL specifications. Central to this objective is collaborating
closely with STIL user around the world, including Japan's STIL based
Semiconductor Test Action Group (SSTAG), in order to identify any
specification gaps. The ultimate goal is to enable a broader adoption of
the IEEE specifications amongst EDA, ATE and semiconductor companies.
"At this year's Global STC Conference, our main focus was to
investigate collaborative solutions to address today's most current test
challenges," explained STC Manager Bob Helsel. "Through this synergy, we
concluded that, while we have working groups spanning the semiconductor
industry-from docking and interface, to PTIM-the expansion of some of these
working groups and the creation of new working groups is imperative to
fully support and enable the STC ecosystem."
The STC will be exhibiting in booth #8235 (West Hall, Level 2) at
SEMICON West 2008, July 15-17 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco,
Calif.
About the Semiconductor Test Consortium
The Semiconductor Test Consortium (STC) was founded in 2003. Open to
all companies throughout the semiconductor supply chain with a vested
interest in the test sector, the consortium is focused on the following
goals: formalizing a broadened STC scope with new working groups and
specification structure; fostering pre-competitive collaboration among
industry participants toward development of value-added standards;
emphasizing the value of work being accomplished and the contributions to
the industry; and continuing efforts to fully enable the STC Ecosystem,
through its OPENSTAR(R) and STIX(TM) initiatives. Today, 31 semiconductor,
equipment and instrumentation companies worldwide, 44 university members in
Europe, Japan, China and the United States, and 11 individuals support the
STC. More information can be found at http://www.semitest.org.
SOURCE Semiconductor Test Consortium, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.semitest.org
CONTACT:
Bob Helsel of Semiconductor Test Consortium,
+1-303-652-1311, bhelsel@semitest.org; or Ellen Van Etten of MCA,
+1-970-778-6094, evanetten@mcapr.com, for Semiconductor Test
Consortium, Inc.
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