The semiconductor industry is known for its high production costs and high product quality. As technology advances and consumer expectations rise, semiconductor companies are constantly pressured to meet these cost and quality goals while delivering cutting-edge products.
Traditionally, the semiconductor industry has followed Moore’s Law and focused on creating smaller technology nodes. In recent years, however, the pace has slowed as we approach the physical limit of the number of transistors that can be contained on a single chip. This means that the cost reduction per transistor has also slowed. At the same time, the complexity of new architectures and packages has led to the increasing cost of developing new devices on advanced nodes.
We must seek new process innovations to continue semiconductor growth and progress. Optimizing semiconductor processes is a dynamic and ongoing effort that requires a deep understanding of specific manufacturing challenges, technological advancements, and the changing needs of end customers for faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient devices. Semiconductor companies must be at the forefront of process optimization to remain competitive.
Because of the amount of data generated throughout the manufacturing process, data analytics enables semiconductor companies to make informed decisions based on real-time insights. From production planning to resource allocation, analytics plays a key role in ensuring that decisions are aligned with cost-saving measures and quality improvement strategies. In addition, real-time data analytics can use low-latency implementations to identify deviations in manufacturing and testing processes, enabling companies to quickly detect and resolve potential issues before they continue to cascade down and affect final delivery quality.
The benefits of data analytics in the semiconductor industry are enormous. However, companies must contend with challenges such as data security, integrating analytics into existing systems, and the need for new data skills to succeed. This largely leads to siloed analytical approaches that limit the scope and impact of solutions.
Just as semiconductor device architectures need to be optimized for system-level performance, so too do design, test, and manufacturing processes need to be optimized to achieve the results needed for improved quality and efficiency, as well as capacity optimization.
Teradyne and NI Jointly Released the Solution
The integration of NI Global Operation (GO) and Teradyne’s Archimedes Analytics solutions and their respective real-time test analytics capabilities enables customers to break down silos and integrate real-time responses into the test process. Through this collaboration, customers can obtain and control test results more quickly. Archimedes’ open development architecture and zero-trust security model reduce testing overhead and enable real-time execution of test units. NI GO’s data lifecycle and analysis engine provides insights to generate rules and algorithms that respond effectively in the Archimedes environment. Together, this provides out-of-the-box monitoring and control operations that increase efficiency, yield, and quality.
A new era of semiconductor test control has been opened through the integration of partnerships. Secure, complete, and on-time data lifecycle and analytics management enable customers to develop, simulate, publish, manage, and track all of their analytics software, models, and algorithms.
What is NI Global Operations
NI Global Operations is a proven semiconductor analytics solution that collects, cleans, and analyzes data from multiple manufacturing, test, and enterprise data sources to optimize every phase of the semiconductor lifecycle. With its critical reliance on testing, NI GO has created actionable rules that run in the cloud, at the edge, and now within the test cell itself to continuously improve efficiency, quality, and yield by deploying key technical advantages, including complete historical data management – Combines test data with other manufacturing, process, and enterprise sources to maintain a history of product inputs and outputs designed to provide critical semiconductor insights for analytical tools.
Algorithms, Models, and Operations Management – A single hub for test and operations teams to deploy data-driven rules, including ML/AI models, that trigger specified actions both internally and on the OSAT test platform.
Open, scalable software – easily integrated into existing IT and operations platforms, providing out-of-the-box solutions and do-it-yourself so users can get the functionality they need.
What is the Teradyne Archimedes Analytics Solution
The Teradyne Archimedes Analytics solution is an open development environment that enables real-time analytics and the flexibility to provide custom solutions that are out of the box and easy to deploy.
Specifically designed for use with Teradyne testers, Teradyne Archimedes offers a range of unique benefits for testing complex semiconductors, including support for real-time, bidirectional data streaming – creating a closed feedback loop through which data can flow from the tester to the analysis solution and back to the tester. This real-time data flow enables our customers to leverage their analytics solutions to instantly identify and implement process optimizations during validation and high-volume manufacturing processes, resulting in improved equipment quality and yield.
Open architecture – gives customers the flexibility to choose their preferred analytics solution and customize it to best suit their requirements. Teradyne’s tight integration with leading analytics providers ensures fast and efficient deployment. At the same time, Terreda Archimedes can also be integrated with custom solutions.
Security Platform at the Edge of the Network – With Teradyne UltraEdge2000, customers can achieve real-time analysis in a secure environment that protects test data. UltraEdge2000 is a secure platform that performs real-time analytical optimizations with millisecond latency.
The semiconductor industry’s embrace of data analytics represents a paradigm shift in how companies address cost and quality challenges. As technology continues to advance, using data to make informed decisions will become a decisive factor in the success and sustainability of semiconductor manufacturing. By harnessing the power of data analytics such as NI and Teradyne solutions, companies can not only remain competitive but also pave the way for a more efficient and high-quality future of semiconductor production.
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