This thesis describes the role of test engineering in the context of product generation management in a semiconductor company. Semiconductor manufacturers, especially in case of memory devices, have to produce devices with high performance, high density and high quality, as the application products ...
This thesis describes the role of test engineering in the context of product generation management in a semiconductor company. Semiconductor manufacturers, especially in case of memory devices, have to produce devices with high performance, high density and high quality, as the application products are moving toward more variety, higher performance, lower power consumption and digitalization. Therefore, a semiconductor company has to manage product generations in order to develop and produce devices that are evolving continuously. In managing the product generations, competitive priorities are time to market, high quality, low cost and on-time delivery. When a new generation is introduced as a main product, test engineering carries out the four critical functions, purchasing test equipment, developing test processes, developing programs to test devices, and accumulating test-related knowledge. Using the framework developed above, we analyze the product history of a case company. We identified six challenges for the semiconductor company in terms of test engineering. The first is to increase the size of investment to develop a new test process. In order to avoid large investment for the test equipment, the company has to integrate the final test process and the wafer probe process from the design stage. The second is to overcome the difficulty of the on-time installation of test equipment. The company has to extend its joint development projects with equipment suppliers. The third is to accommodate the frequent alterations of the complementary assets. The company has to improve flexibility to deal with the frequent changes. The forth is to improve flexibility to cope with the various processes and diverse setup conditions. The fifth is to improve the development performances for test programs. It would be a great challenge because of the trade-off between cost and quality. It is necessary to differentiate test programs. For example, we could test simple items in testing product for lower density applications such as PCs, and we test more complicated items in testing product for high-density applications such as servers and workstations. It is also recommendable to analyze failure devices in detail and to review the former processes. The sixth is to enhance the technological capabilities of test engineering. It is necessary for the company to involve more in the basic and application R&D activities. In conclusion, it is suggested to pursue strategic management initiatives in the test engineering area for the semiconductor manufacturer to obtain the competence for the future generations.
This thesis describes the role of test engineering in the context of product generation management in a semiconductor company. Semiconductor manufacturers, especially in case of memory devices, have to produce devices with high performance, high density and high quality, as the application products are moving toward more variety, higher performance, lower power consumption and digitalization. Therefore, a semiconductor company has to manage product generations in order to develop and produce devices that are evolving continuously. In managing the product generations, competitive priorities are time to market, high quality, low cost and on-time delivery. When a new generation is introduced as a main product, test engineering carries out the four critical functions, purchasing test equipment, developing test processes, developing programs to test devices, and accumulating test-related knowledge. Using the framework developed above, we analyze the product history of a case company. We identified six challenges for the semiconductor company in terms of test engineering. The first is to increase the size of investment to develop a new test process. In order to avoid large investment for the test equipment, the company has to integrate the final test process and the wafer probe process from the design stage. The second is to overcome the difficulty of the on-time installation of test equipment. The company has to extend its joint development projects with equipment suppliers. The third is to accommodate the frequent alterations of the complementary assets. The company has to improve flexibility to deal with the frequent changes. The forth is to improve flexibility to cope with the various processes and diverse setup conditions. The fifth is to improve the development performances for test programs. It would be a great challenge because of the trade-off between cost and quality. It is necessary to differentiate test programs. For example, we could test simple items in testing product for lower density applications such as PCs, and we test more complicated items in testing product for high-density applications such as servers and workstations. It is also recommendable to analyze failure devices in detail and to review the former processes. The sixth is to enhance the technological capabilities of test engineering. It is necessary for the company to involve more in the basic and application R&D activities. In conclusion, it is suggested to pursue strategic management initiatives in the test engineering area for the semiconductor manufacturer to obtain the competence for the future generations.
주제어
#Semiconductor Generation management Test engineering Function Strategic management initiatives 반도체 세대교체 검사공정 활동 대응전략
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