Optimizing the True Cost of Test for SSDs

By Scott West, SSD Marketing Manager for Advantest America, and Mark Webb, Industry Consultant at MKW Ventures

With market analysts forecasting that production of solid-state drives (SSDs) will rise to more than 200 million units per year by 2017, device manufacturers need a reliable, high-volume, cost-efficient test solution to serve this rapidly growing market.

For SSD makers, focusing solely on the cost of test (COT) can be misleading. COT is calculated by dividing a piece of equipment’s purchase price by its throughput. While this is a valuable metric, it provides only a snapshot of one point in the lifetime of a tester.

Look at Total Cost of Ownership

To more accurately gauge the economic performance of a tester over time, SSD manufacturers should look at the total cost of ownership (TCO), which takes into consideration not just an item’s initial price, but also longer term considerations such as operating costs and maintenance. For instance, the expense of load boards and consumable materials, power usage, floor-space requirements and operator costs all factor into TCO.

Other considerations include intangibles such as service and support agreements, the length of cycle times and the turnaround time in procuring spare parts. Even an ATE supplier’s “staying power” can affect TCO. This is because semiconductor manufacturers need reliable equipment suppliers that are guaranteed to be around to help them quickly ramp up capacity when needed, to continually find innovative ways to drive down the cost of test and to develop new test technologies to address tomorrow’s market opportunities.

Maximize Your ROI

Because not all testers are created equal, throughput and productivity levels often vary for different systems. So meeting a chip maker’s throughput needs could require only three testers from one supplier, but four systems from another. For example, a PC-based tester might handle 25,000 to 30,000 I/Os per second when testing SSDs with standard second-generation PCIe interface protocols. However, a high-performance system such as Advantest’s MPT3000 platform, equipped with both address and data accelerators, can test eight SSDs simultaneously. This highly parallel testing translates to 260,000 I/Os per second, a throughput boost that dramatically improves TCO.

Another factor to consider is changing market conditions. While rudimentary PC-based testers may come with a lower initial price point, systems that are optimized for flexibility – with scalable architectures, the versatility to test a wide range of today’s device designs and the forward-looking ability to be reconfigured to meet future needs – will provide significantly better TCO in the long run.

As an example, let’s look at a SSD production facility using PC-based test equipment that is turning out a 50-50 mix of devices with PCIe interfaces and SAS interfaces. If market demand shifts and the company wants to adjust its production to 67 percent PCIe devices and 33 percent SAS products, it would need to purchase and ramp up more PC-based testers to handle the additional PCIe SSDs while idling some of its installed SAS-compatible testers.

Only by using reconfigurable test equipment could the company accommodate the new product mix without buying extra capital equipment, dedicating more floor space and bringing in additional operators. Advantest’s MPT3000 tester can be repurposed quickly and easily by downloading new firmware for SAS, SATA and PCIe protocols, making it the most flexible and extendible single-system test solution for SSDs.

A Future Enabled by Flexible Testing

The MPT3000’s flexibility makes it an especially appealing tool for out-sourced assembly and test (OSAT) foundries, which offer SSD makers the opportunity to avoid capital costs in testing their devices. The OSAT business model is based on testing a wide variety of devices in high volumes for multiple customers so these foundry operations need highly versatile test equipment with true multi-protocol support in a single system. While the OSAT model is well established in testing most semiconductor devices, this approach is a new undertaking for the SSD market. Still, the advent of SSD-focused test foundries has strong potential to shorten the time to market and drive down the cost of test for new SSD products.

Young, fast-growing semiconductor markets are characterized by quick shifts in market demand, which force device manufacturers to be agile enough to quickly re-balance their manufacturing levels for various products. This puts a premium on highly flexible test capabilities. For the high-volume, cost-sensitive SSD market, Advantest’s MPT3000 system provides the optimal solution.

Getting from R&D to IoT with the EVA100

By Anthony Lum, Business Development Manager, Advantest America, Inc.

Figure 1

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one the most ubiquitous technology-related topics these days. It’s become one of the tech buzzwords that transcend discussion in trade publications and blogs, showing up regularly in consumer and business publications as speculation swirls about when, where and to what extent IoT products are being deployed. Currently, the broadest applications for IoT solutions are automotive environments, from which myriad products can be launched and controlled, and household uses, including appliances, lighting and environment controls.

In the semiconductor world, analog integrated circuits (ICs) represent a key aspect of IoT. The need for analog ICs has increased in near direct proportion to the number of smart wireless devices on the market. With IoT device volumes expected to top these numbers, analog ICs will play an even more critically important role due to the higher performance, tighter accuracy and longer reliability that IoT devices require. In addition, analog ICs are essential to the rapid device characterization and fast delivery of customer samples the engineering community demands.

R&D engineers previously addressed these challenges by employing classic rack-and-stack or PXI benchtop instrumentation. These solutions were the best fit because of their broad technical reach. However, time-perishable deliverables proved extremely challenging because R&D engineers faced the additional task of developing system software to control and integrate the non-automated benchtop solutions. This undertaking requires strong coding skills and a more comprehensive knowledge of each of the benchtop instruments’ operation than the engineers typically possess. Manual measurement, on the other hand, is cumbersome and hampers rapid turnaround of deliverables.

Figure 2

One solution that addresses this range of challenges is Advantest’s EVA100 measurement system, whose step-function integration is a significant improvement over classic benchtop instruments. The EVA100’s “all-in-one” concept integrates functions for a hose of instrumentation – power supplies, 4-quadrant DC signal measurement units, pattern generators, logic analyzers, arbitrary waveform generators, digitizers and oscilloscopes – into a single, modular unit. Each of these functions replaces standalone, focused instruments necessary to perform comprehensive evaluation and measurement of linear, automotive and industrial devices. Figure 2 shows how the EVA100 greatly simplifies analog IC device setup and replaces the need for six standalone, classic, benchtop instruments.

The “all-in-one” EVA100, also nicknamed the “shoe-box,” has a small footprint and is lightweight, portable and runs on standard 120V AC – all of which facilitates moving the unit from desktop to desktop, or into the lab as needed. The same hardware and setup can be preserved at any measurement station or node, assuring data acquisition consistency and correlation.

Rapid turnaround can be inhibited by development of complex software. Historically an underscoped task that tends to takes longer than expected to complete, software development is also complex and depends on users’ experience and comfort level. Software development is not needed with the EVA100, thanks to its newly developed, highly intuitive software GUI. With its drag-and-drop operation, the software interface enables engineers to quickly and easily create device-focused measurement set-ups. Automatic report functions dramatically improve deskwork efficiency, providing clear documentation and data ready for publishing in device data sheets.

The EVA100 combines Advantest’s unparalleled ATE and benchtop expertise to synergistically deliver a benchtop-measurement system that is fully modular and delivers benchtop-accuracy hardware along with intuitive GUI software delivering a complete turnkey solution. Priced competitively to benchtop instruments to ensure maximize ROI, the fully integrated EVA100 is often lower priced than an equivalent piecemeal rack or PXI instrument configuration. With software also included as part of the system’s package, the IoT-optimized EVA100 solves the two-pronged challenge of rapid device characterization and high performance quantitative data for a wide range of analog ICs.

About the Author

Anthony Lum joined Advantest America in 2006 and is currently ASD Business Development Manager. He amassed over 25 years of ATE experience specializing in RF and Analog SoC device testing through roles as a test engineer, applications engineer, and test and applications management at Texas Instruments and HP/Agilent. He received his BSEE at Arizona State University in 1986 and has authored over 20 IEEE and industry papers.

IoT and Smart Applications Pose New Testing Challenges

By Adriano Mancosu, Business Development Manager,  Advantest

Every day, it seems, the number of “smart” products and applications in our lives expands – we are seeing this not only in the automotive space and consumer products (particularly wearables), but also in retail, commercial and industrial settings. At the heart of all this new smart technology is what is known as the “Internet of Things,” or the IoT – a term whose definition is still difficult to pin down (and tends to depend on whom you ask).

From Advantest’s perspective, the IoT requires three primary building blocks that, when combined, enable a wide range of new applications for which massive growth is anticipated. These blocks are:

• Computing – the processor/controller and associated software;
• Sensors/actuators – the actual physical and mechanical output; and
• Connectivity – this includes both wireless and wired protocols.

As you may have heard, the IoT will drive 10x more devices per year than smartphones, but the number of applications will grow exponentially – by at least 100x. With this breadth of volume, it will be impractical to develop the kinds of customized, high-end devices for IoT that have been created for smartphones. Thus, the industry needs to come up with manufacturing and test solutions that are adaptable for repurposing in multiple applications.

This also highlights the opportunity that the IoT market creates for smaller companies. While just a few semiconductor makers own 80 percent of the smartphone market, there will be any number of new players who can build a solution based on a unique concept. To bring these solutions to market, they will need to tap the services of semiconductor assembly and test subcontractors. Advantest, with its broad installed base and ecosystem of partners, is one company with the flexibility to help these new players get to market faster.

Testing the IoT

Each of the three IoT building blocks creates unique challenges for test. The microcontroller drivers test toward the highest possible parallel as it requires lengthy test times, while DC accuracy is a key driver for sensors due to their need for a stimulus. On the connectivity front, RF devices, specifically, operate at very high frequencies, which the test process must take into account due to some of the peculiarities this creates within the device.

No tester company currently offers a solution enabling all three devices to be tested at once. While individual test will continue for the near future, the market will undoubtedly be driven toward a single testing platform due to the need to reduce test costs and times. The tester and handler will need to deal with a highly complex range of requirements, and combining the three devices together will require a number of compromises – highlighting the fundamental need for ATE flexibility and scalability.

Covering RF for the many lower-power connectivity standards – e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy, ZigBee, 2.4G and others – will certainly require a high degree of flexibility. Most of the sensors used today for the IoT and wearables are either motion (accelerometers, gyroscopes) or environmental (humidity and pressure devices). Testing these components requires a cable interface, as the handler is either moving the parts or located in a humid/hot chamber.

The question of how much revenue ATE companies will ultimately realize around IoT and smart devices is murky at this point, as software services offered by ATE providers will play a key role, and how much will be required is not fully known. In addition, cloud computing is driving solid-state drive (SSD) memories and high-end application processors. With all these variables in play, we anticipate an exciting environment developing over the next few years.

With no single platform developed to address these varied testing needs, growing parallelism and more specifications demand an approach such as the Advantest V93000 “universal pin” test system. Its flexible architecture provides a solution for driving at the end of a 100-inch cable a resource that can be a digital, DC, mixed-signal and RF solution. Because any handler can utilize this interface, the user can simply work on the handler side without having to make any changes on the tester side. To accommodate additional modules, the user need only select the correct tool, making the V93000 a proven, viable option for testing IoT and smart devices.

VOICE 2015 Attracts Over 400 Attendees on Two Continents

Advantest made its VOICE 2015 Developer Conference a truly international forum in May by holding the event in both Santa Clara, Calif., and Shanghai, China – the first time that this annual gathering of test equipment users, suppliers and partners has been held outside the United States. More than 400 people attended the events, which featured 79 technical papers on May 12-13 in Silicon Valley and 24 presentations on May 22 in Shanghai.

In addition to its geographic growth, VOICE 2015 also set a new record for international speakers with presenters coming from 14 countries, up from 11 last year. The conference continues to expand by including new companies and new ideas. Of the 134 abstracts submitted this year, more than 41 percent came from authors who had not presented at any prior VOICE conferences. Among those candidates trying to become first-time presenters at VOICE, more than 78 percent were from Advantest customers, an indicator of the high value that chipmakers place on this annual forum.

The sessions were packed with technical talks on topics such as the latest testing capabilities enabled by Advantest’s V93000 and T2000 platforms, production test cells, product engineering and emerging test technologies. In addition, attendees benefited from multiple networking opportunities at both events.

VOICE in Silicon Valley

In Silicon Valley, VOICE began with a welcome address by Advantest America, Inc. President and CEO Doug Lefever. Technical product highlights were presented by Andree Weyh, Amit Monga and Zain Abadin of Advantest. Then global adventurer and award-winning author Paul Deegan gave an inspirational keynote address called “Breathless: Embracing Uncertainty at 29,000 Feet.” On the second day, many attendees spoke directly with Advantest test experts at on-site kiosks. After the two-day conference, a supplemental day of workshops was offered at Advantest’s San Jose headquarters for customers wanting more detailed, hands-on training.

VOICE in China

The inaugural VOICE in Shanghai, which was completely filled several weeks before the event, opened with a welcome speech by Yong Xu, CEO of Advantest China Co., Ltd. The keynote speaker was Dr. Jonathan Sang, senior director of the Testing & Outsourcing Unit from HH Grace, who spoke on “Diversified Technologies for the Wearable Market.”

Best Paper Awards

With technical presentations at its core, VOICE recognizes the best paper at each conference with an award judged by attendees. This year’s winners at the Silicon Valley event were Luis Neria Govea of Qualcomm and Frank Dollendorf of Advantest for their talk on “Different Methods for Run-Time Vector Manipulation and Their Test Time Impacts.” In Shanghai, the best paper award went to Michael Min and Liang Ge of Advantest for their presentation entitled “Examining a Sequencer-Controlled Search-Trimming Solution with Conditional Jump.” VOICE 2015 attendees may obtain instructions on how to get the published proceedings on the conference website at www.advantest.com/voice

Thank You to the VOICE 2015 Supporters & Sponsors

For the first time, the 2015 conference was supported by four industry organizations: SEMI, the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), VLSIresearch and IC Insights. Advantest also extends a special thank you to the 14 companies who sponsored VOICE 2015:

VOICE 2016

In 2016, the Advantest VOICE Developer Conference will mark its tenth anniversary. Program details will be posted online in the coming months.

VLSIresearch Names Advantest to Its 10 BEST List for 27th Successive Year

Leading semiconductor market-research firm VLSIresearch recently revealed the results of its annual Customer Satisfaction Survey. The responses provided by global customers placed Advantest Corporation on the esteemed VLSIresearch 10 BEST List for the 27^th consecutive year. In 2015, Advantest surpassed its personal best scores from prior years, achieving its highest customer ratings in the areas of recommended supplier and technical leadership.

The findings from the survey cited Advantest’s improved ratings in 14 of the 15 categories, landing the overall score above 9.0 for the first time. The company ranked high among THE BEST suppliers of test equipment in 2015, and was also one of the 10 BEST large suppliers of chip making equipment.

More than 96 percent of the chip market provides feedback to the survey, which rates equipment suppliers across 15 categories based on three key factors: supplier performance, customer service, and product performance. “Earning a top ranking in the VLSIresearch Customer Satisfaction Survey underscores Advantest’s core commitment to serving our customers,” stated Shinchiro Kuroe, Advantest Corporation president and CEO. “Across the organization, we remain focused on delivering the highest value of service and support to our customers, and we are delighted that the strategies, people, processes and equipment that we’ve implemented to support the semiconductor industry are having tangible results. We truly appreciate our customers’ recognition and continued confidence.”

VLSIresearch CEO G. Dan Hutcheson noted, “For as long as our Customer Satisfaction Survey has been measuring customer feedback, global customers have paid tribute to Advantest’s ability to deliver superior products along with high quality service and support. Maintaining the customer at the center of the decision-making process is what enables Advantest to support this kind of distinction over time. It’s abundantly clear that Advantest remains dedicated to its customers’ success.”

VLSIresearch also indicated that 2014 was notable for the strong recovery in the test sector, evidenced by 22 percent sales growth in ATE. As one of the top two providers in the space, Advantest shares about 50 percent of overall sales for test and related equipment. Advantest has long been the industry’s only ATE provider to design and manufacture its own fully integrated suite of test-cell solutions, comprising testers, handlers, device interfaces, and software to assure the industry’s highest levels of integrity and compatibility.

As the industry evolves to deliver new test solutions that address the needs of emerging markets and technologies, particularly around automotive, IoT and other smart products, Advantest will maintain its longstanding, razor-sharp focus on providing exceptional products and support to enable our customers’ ongoing success.

Visit Advantest at the Flash Memory Summit and Intel Developer Forum in August

Advantest will exhibit its MPT3000 family of test solutions for advanced solid state drives (SSDs) and present a technical paper at the Flash Memory Summit, August 11-13 in Santa Clara, Calif. Advantest is an Emerald sponsor of this year’s tenth annual Summit. Later in August, Advantest will showcase its advanced test solutions for emerging market segments including the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable electronics at IDF15, the Intel Developer Forum, in San Francisco.

Flash Memory Summit

Designed to help accelerate SSD product development and achieve faster time to market, Advantest’s flexible, multi-protocol MPT3000 platform will be featured in booths #606-608 within Hall B of the Santa Clara Convention Center during the Summit’s exhibition days of August 12-13.

The MPT3000ENV leverages its modular, tester-per-DUT architecture to conduct performance and stress testing of PCIe NVMe, SAS 12G and SATA SSDs of all major form factors in a thermal chamber supporting up to 6.4kW total DUT power dissipation. This tester gives customers the adaptability to compete in the evolving SSD market.

Advantest’s MPT3000ES engineering station uses the same high-performance electronics and software as the MPT3000ENV, but offers a smaller footprint configuration. The engineering station can perform analysis and debugging on a wide range of SSD products enabling device manufacturers to pursue multiple business opportunities with a single test platform. Live demonstrations of the MPT3000ES testing devices of multiple protocols will be shown in the booth.

In addition to its exhibits, Advantest will present a paper on testing SSDs. Speaker Scott Filler, marketing manager at Advantest, will discuss the cost of test for SSDs during the F-21 Forum. This forum will be held in the Great America Ballroom J at the Santa Clara Convention Center on Wednesday, August 12, beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Intel Developer Forum

From August 18-20, Advantest will showcase its advanced test solutions for emerging market segments including IoT and wearable electronics at IDF15, the Intel Developer Forum, in San Francisco. In booth #955 at Moscone Center’s West Hall, Advantest will display its new T5833 and proven T5831 memory testers, which are built on Advantest’s modular AS Platform.

Advantest’s new T5833 system is a high-volume, versatile test solution designed for both wafer sort and final test of LPDDR3-DRAMs, high-speed NAND flash, multi-chip packages (MCPs) and non-volatile memory devices – the primary memory ICs used in smart phones and tablet computers. With a parallel test capacity of 2,048 devices for wafer test and 512 devices for final package test, the T5833 lowers costs by significantly reducing test times and boosting throughput.

The cost-efficient T5831 system, already installed for high-volume manufacturing, supports testing of all NAND flash devices, including all ONFI, Toggle, 3D NAND and eMMCs, and mobile DRAMs in MCPs. Both T5833 and T5831 are built with high-throughput Tester-Per-Site™ architectures and the semiconductor industry’s highest power supply current per device under test (DUT), making them ideal test solutions for current and next-generation memory devices.

Since both testers are built on Advantest’s modular AS Platform, they enable each customer to choose the optimal system configuration for its specific needs. The platform’s module upgradeability allows it to handle current and future generations of devices, and its scalability increases throughput, all of which generates greater return on investment.

At IDF15, Advantest will exhibit within the DDR4 Memory Community, a collection of suppliers from the memory IC ecosystem that are spearheading the development of the upcoming fourth generation in double data-rate (DDR) memory technology. DDR4 is the newest DRAM technology, offering increased speed, reduced power, higher capacity capabilities and greater reliability for applications including enterprise and client systems.