Both OEM and brand-name electronics manufacturers trying to shorten time-to-market have to develop capabilities to expedite time-to-production so that they can maintain an edge over competitors by being able to make products in mass quantities, with high yields, and at continuingly reduced costs for a chance to win market support. This applies to manufacturing of all sorts of products and also to the emerging IoT industry where products feature low volume and high mix with constant challenges on testing technologies.How to find the best solution to product testing is an industry-wide challenge. LitePoint endeavors to help Taiwan-based manufacturers in the search for innovative thinking on testing technologies and offers complete solutions by convening a forum every six months.The 2015 LitePoint forum featured two sessions on July 21 and 23 respectively in Hsinchu and Taipei, both of which centered on how LitePoint wireless testing technologies can be used to raise efficiency of testing during production and function verification during product design, and to offer complete testing solutions targeting emerging IoT trends. To propose an ideal testing solution, LitePoint started the forum with the message, "What is the value of testing?" presented by Adam Smith.The real meaning behind testing is the pursuit for product qualityIn his presentation, Adam Smith, Director of Product Marketing at LitePoint, started out by outlining the importance of testing as it ensures product quality. A product without quality has neither market opportunity nor a chance at succeeding, regardless of whether it is a master design, ingenious creation, or monumental work.Wireless transmission technologies are advancing by leaps and bounds. Take a 4G smartphone for example. The product design has to take into consideration the number of frequency bands likely to grow from five to over 20 by next year and additional support for two to three wireless transmission standards including WiFi and Bluetooth, requiring a total of eight antennas in general. Moreover, 30% of new phones on the market next year are expected to come with dual SIM card support so the testing items will also have to include WCDMA and GSM. It will definitely take a tremendous part of production time to test products integrating all these complicated functionalities on a small device, covering transmission over all the wireless channels, and supporting different chipset modules. This will result in an increase to production costs and therefore impact profitability. The situation calls for a provider that is capable of delivering total integrated testing systems and production solutions.Similar to the case of handsets, testing for WiFi devices is also very challenging. Additional antenna testing conditions are required for the 802.11ac Wave 2 standard with MU-MIMO and Beamforming. Furthermore, WiFi transmission in competition with LTE for the 5GHz frequency is error prone, so testing is essential to ensuring product quality and thereby upholding brand reputation.DUT Sense, Fixture Health Check, and APLC help build up production lines and enhance overall testing efficiencyToday we see over 1 billion smartphones manufactured on the production line every year and each one has more antennas that need to be tested and verified on different testers. As such, it is natural that manufacturers are very calculating about the time required to do the testing and also the space needed to set up the testers, the arrangement of the jigs and operation dynamics.Through continuing communication and work with customers, LitePoint has developed a set of new tools that help customers improve their testing station configurations including equipment, wiring, and jig check. Before complicated DUT goes on the line, software tools including DUT Sense that performs calibration, Fixture Health Check that checks jigs and probes, Automatic Path Loss Calibration(APLC) that examines cabling and connection efficiency assist customers with the essential preparation for setting up a testing station on a production line.zSeries meets challenges regarding function verification and manufacturing for chip designers and system assemblersA mobile phone's user experience is determined by its performance with respect to signal reception and power efficiency, which is related to the RF FrontEnd(RFFE) design. A general 4G phone for use around the globe has to comply with a variety of 4G transmission specs in different countries and support over 40 frequency bands. With the 5GHz frequency soon to join the competition, chip developers are struggling with challenges arising from the complexity of multi-mode multi-band testing and therefore are in need of help from providers of RF modules. Testing tools that can facilitate IC design houses to verify functions of their chips or enable system assemblers to test RF modules become very valuable.The PA/FEM solution provided by LitePoint zSeries focuses on testing of power amplifiers and RFFE modules. In addition to different chip specs used in RF FEM modules, additional verifications required by signal processing, such as dynamic EVM, ACLR, PAE, RF output power, DC power supply, and channel frequency, are also scanned and tested. Furthermore, special verification processes including Digital Pre-Distortion(DPD) and Envelope Tracking(ET) needed during design are also incorporated. LitePoint's product application manager for zSeries stresses that the consideration about testing not only encompasses accelerating the verification process but also ensuring the end product performance matches brand reputation on quality. This can be achieved by zSeries that delivers a flexible combination of automatic testing platforms satisfying requirements by both design verification and manufacturing applications.Innovative IoT applications inspire new testing thinkingInnovative applications and new startups are flourishing with booming IoT developments and are attracting attention from consumers and investors. However, IoT is still at a stage where a multitude of companies are competing against each other and the key to winning lies in the user experience and product design as well as aesthetics. From a technological perspective, under the surface is a contention among a host of wireless transmission technologies, Big Data analytics, and software platforms provided by tech alliances and group leaders. Therefore, we will likely see integrated technologies continue to emerge.LitePoint's presentation showed a series of wireless technologies that are likely to be integrated, including BT4.2, WiFi, ZigBee, WiSUN, Z-wave, NFC, and LTE Cat0, each with its own advantage. It is still unclear which wireless technology will become dominant. WiFi and related standards are promising as they are widely used but power consumption remains an issue. New WiFi 802.11ah spec attempts to reduce power consumption but is still at draft stage. BTLE, ZigBee, WiSUN, and Z-wave have an advantage in terms of power efficiency but data transmission rate needs improvement. NFC is most special in that it is more like an inductor coil of a transformer than a wireless protocol. However, its security feature surpasses all the others so people highly anticipate the technology but it is still unclear if NFC will stand out and become dominant.LitePoint's product manager raised as many as four questions at a time about IoT device testing. Can you make money only by cutting corners? Does testing necessarily cost you an arm and a leg? Is RF testing undoubtedly difficult? Is it enough to do simple Go/NG DUT testing? Everyone may have different answers to these questions. However, LitePoint solutions will definitely offer you a more positive answer for your IoT device testing.Evolution of 802.11ac Wave2 and new challenges in testing VHT 160, 1024QAM, and BeamformingMainstream chip vendors providing 802.11ac Wave2 chips remain a minority as the market development is still at infancy. However, LitePoint is closely watching the trend to help customers create differentiating product features and capture new opportunities. Beamforming uses constructive interference generated by signals from multiple antennas and concentrates beams in the direction of the client device. Signal coverage in the direction of the client device can be increased to help WiFi AP signals penetrate through walls. Beamforming comprises Explicit and Implicit Beamforming based on the spec. Implicit Beamforming (IBF) assumes downlink and uplink channels have the same conditions and only uses uplink signals for channel estimation, which is then used for downlink signal compensation. However, such an assumption does not work in the real environment so Explicit Beamforming (EBF), dynamically performing channel estimation on both uplink and downlink channels and then making signal compensation, is developed to achieve better beamforming effects.Beamforming is very sensitive with respect to phases. PCB using different components for receiving and transmitting circuits will result in phase differences in uplink and downlink signals so production of devices with the beamforming technology requires beamforming calibration to ensure the differences will not affect beamforming performance. Furthermore, special care has to be taken regarding different beamforming calibration algorithms used in chips from various vendors. LitePoint IQxel-M8 can adjust to different chip vendors' beamforming calibration methods, thereby giving considerations to a variety of testing requirements.LitePoint's IQxel-160 and IQxel-M16 solutions additionally cover testing for some new technologies not included in 802.11ac, such as 1024QAM. In particular, IQxel-160 has become a standard tester for almost all mainstream chip developers attributing to LitePoint's long-term cooperation with chip makers, which in turn benefits other LitePoint customers as well.Adam Smith, Director of Product Marketing at LitePoint, presenting views on technology trends and values of wireless testing at the forum

From the prompt demands of semiconductor, the killer applications are handheld devices, wearable devices, automotive applications and the Internet of Things(IoT). Most ICs are manufactured beyond 65nm and even more advanced processes. Such a SoC may include multi-core CPU, application processors, communication IPs such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G or LTE and multi-type of sensors.Layout ChallengesSuch rapid increase of chip complexity results in the revolution of layout design. Not only the functionality and quality of a reliable product must be ensured, but also many ultra deep submicron (UDSM) effects can no longer be ignored any more. The understanding of analysis or simulation alone is not showing enough value. The future trend is the layout tool can have the capability of the intelligence beyond the ability of ordinary people to know how to judge and decision-making.Thus, the layout engine must be powerful enough to produce high-quality layouts. This includes respect for the design requirements such as large scale layout size up to several hundred GB, debugging capabilities with clear and smart net tracing, critical area analysis and density control, edge effect analysis and pattern analyzer of big data of wafer map. All the layout requirements must be fulfilled in a unified, friendly and hyper performance environment to deliver high yield and time-to-market layouts.A Complete Solution with ThunderTo overcome the layout challenges, Thunder provides an intelligent and a complete layout solution which has Hybrid Design Database (DDB) and Defect Knowledge Database(DKDB) with data mining technologies, accelerator, optimizer and analysis engines. The technologies are Big Data Analyzer for defect analysis, Performance Accelerator for large layout size and performance issues, Dummy Fill Optimizer for non-uniform density issues, and De-duplicated Merge to reduce the file size of the redundant cells when performing IP merge. With these technologies, Thunder can handle design capacity up to 500GB+ and provide the full SoC manipulation abilities with industry-leading performance.Early Warning of Potential Defects with Big Data AnalyzerTo dig out the potential wafer defects, Thunder provides a powerful mechanism to automatically identify the defect signatures from KLARF. Thunder contains a Defect Knowledge Database (DKDB) and a robust Big Data Analyzer that can automatically compare the design data in DDB to the defect signatures in DKDB to know whether the wafer with the defect patterns or not . With Defect Extraction technology, engineers can visualize in a more trivial way ; the Big Data Analysis Engine allow the defect engineers to generate and manage their own pattern library and set the threshold to notify them when the results of Statistical Monitor exceed the threshold. This engine is also helpful for engineers to optimize parameter settings or fine tune the analysis sequence to gain the better improvement of yield.Hyper Performance Import for High Capacity Design with Direct Import TechnologyMost layout tools save the layout to the disk when importing it at the first time. Anaglobe's professional designers find that saving layout designs to disk when importing does result in the performance bottleneck and even the hanging process sometimes. To break through the bottleneck, Thunder saves and runs it in the main memory directly instead of saving it back to the disk when layout files are imported. With the direct import technology, the layout size that Thunder can import is over 500GB+ which is the biggest one over all current layout tools!LVL Performance Accelerator with Layout Analysis EngineInstead of comparing each layout one by one for LVL comparison, Thunder provides the fastest performance of LVL comparison, linear to data size, to quickly identify the differences between two designs. The intelligent layout analysis engine has the ability to quickly differentiate whether two blocks are possible to be the same or not. When they are not, further detail comparison will be no longer processed.Uniform Layout Density Distribution with Dummy Fill OptimizerNon-uniform density will degrade analog circuit performance and impact the yield. It needs intelligent methodology to check the critical area and generate the dummy cells accordingly. Thunder provides a density map generation, violation checking and rule based dummy metal fill insertion to resolve the density issue completely. Beyond other tools, small region can be done as well. For dummy fill insertion, it can insert a uniform and regular metal pattern to low density area according to the target percentage interactively and creates vertical or horizontal patterns with offset.Comprehensive Debugging with 3D VisualizationThunder's powerful 3D net tracer provides both tracing and highlight problematic nets with 3D visualization. It supports both location based and pin text based tracing. 3D View is not only for net, but also for finFET or Cut Layers.Consolidate IP Merge with De-duplicated Merge TechnologyWhen merging IPs, Thunder has a very smart mechanism, De-duplicated Merge Technology, to detect and remove the redundant layouts of cells. The power of De-duplicated Technology is to use LVL comparison during the merging process to know whether the layouts of the cells are exactly the same or not. When they are the same, only one layout will be kept in the design and other cells will be renamed. That's the way for Thunder to consolidate the design. The merge results are also very impressive to the layout designers. The best case is 60% GDS size can be saved!ConclusionWorking in Thunder's environment allows you to start from the layout prototyping, IP merge and yield improvement in one unified platform. Intuitive GUI and 3D layout view enables the efficiency of debugging. Thunder also can communicate with the third party tools and provide big data analysis for wafer inspection results. Uniform layout density distribution and dummy fill insertion in critical area also can be done automatically and intelligently. In short, Thunder is a total and an optimized customization layout solution which does address to resolve all deep submicron layout issues and can increase 30X+~50X+ productivity! Thunder – provided by AnaGlobe (http://www.anaglobe.com)A complete solution with ThunderEarly warning of potential defects with Big Data Analyzer

Who today doesn't think IoT is cool? And, why not? We're in an era where everything is connected to everything else in a six degrees of separation-like scenario for our electronics devices.Smart homes, smart autos and even smart cities are all cool amenities to make life easier and more comfortable. Smart, wearable consumer devices, such as running shoes and fitness trackers, furnish us with a personal health coach on our feet or wrist. Smart health and wellness applications are popping up everywhere, giving anyone with a smart phone or tablet instant access to an informed medical professional. Smart tile, a Bluetooth tracker, helps find lost or misplaced keys or wallets. A smart button creates shortcuts to our phones. Automatic washing machines and domestic refrigerators were cool to our grandparents because they enabled them to have more time for other pursuits. IoT is cool today for the same reason.Much of this innovation is due to a common hardware platform that has enabled what will be close to 50-billion connected devices by 2020 and lets consumers access multiple time-saving, health-conscious applications. In these new devices, the differentiation is created in embedded software, not so much hardware any longer. The embedded memory requirements are stringent and range from a small silicon footprint and low power with instant-on to programmable, non-volatile code storage. Most important is a guarantee that the memory is highly secure to protect software IP and prevent hacking of these next-generation devices.The need for high secure memory and lower power memory is greater than ever because that is what's needed for the coming devices that could make us better than what is humanly possible. Today, connectivity is ubiquitous. Sensors are ubiquitous. Hardware cost is decreasing because of Moore's Law. We love to share (or don't know we are sharing) through various social media platforms or application services. Next-generation smart peripherals could address improving our five senses: sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing.As we age, our hearing gets worse. Smart phones now have a microphone that can capture the ambient. What if the phone or another form factor in the future could hear better than we do and alert us of the environment around us or of possible danger? We can have context awareness, which will allow us to be aware and perhaps anticipate. We have just started to think about what is possible with IoT and, maybe, not thinking big enough about the possible applications.Winners of this emerging IoT market segment will be devices featuring low power and hack-proof security. They will be inexpensive because the hardware will be tightly coupled with differentiating embedded software. And, naturally, they will have multiple application services onboard. Today, we trade data unknowingly, and the need for security will continue to be important.Power, power and more power will become even more important when we think about the changing mankind type of applications. We can't have a lithium battery in our eye when there's a contact lens helping us see beyond 20/20. Bitcell current of embedded NVM needs to be reduced in addition to the traditional peripherals done today.From the cool applications of today to the life changing peripheral applications of tomorrow, the technology requirements are advancing, and the NVM technology used for these applications needs to be at ultra-low power, low cost, and highly secure. It will be exciting to see, with these accomplishments, what the next generation applications can do for humankind.For more information about Kilopass Technology, please visit: http://www.kilopass.com/

Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation's (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE) subsidiary Advantest (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) foundry Fabtronic Sdn Bhd and Malaysia's Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) have entered a strategic partnership to enhance the test-development and product-characterization skills of IC test engineers by establishing a laboratory and professional training center in Malaysia's Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER). The partner organizations expect the program to help reduce development costs and improve time to market for semiconductor devices made in Malaysia.The three organizations signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly launch a shared-services test laboratory and skills development training program at the Northern Corridor Technology Development Center (NTDC), located in Phase 4 of the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone in Penang, Malaysia. The new lab and training program will be run by Fabtronic, which has equipped the facility with a V93000 Smart Scale test platform from Advantest. This scalable system is designed to support both engineering and high-volume manufacturing applications."We enthusiastically support this cooperative venture to grow Malaysia's high-tech ecosystem, expand its skilled labor force and improve product-development efficiencies," said Paul Lau, managing director and CEO of Advantest (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. "Advantest is proud to be a founding member of this three-pronged coalition of private-sector and government groups helping to bring the first shared-services test lab to Southeast Asia."More information about Advantest Corporation is available at http://www.advantest.com/.

Undoubtedly, the hottest topic currently in the manufacturing sector is "Industry 4.0," and most firms hope to utilize ICT, software and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to build up their smart and automation synergy. However, everything has a beginning. To enter Industry 4.0, firms need to have a strong automation foundation, and through data collection and analytics, smart decisions can be made.Industry 3.0 saw the industry utilize computer technology to turn hardware control circuit into software, and make it more digitalized. Industry 3.0 gave birth to PLC supporting complicated logic. This was a huge improvement compared to Industry 2.0. And now, as we move towards Industry 4.0, the goal is to use the bases we have now and integrate elements such as cloud computing, big data, and IoT technologies. Smart processes can help the industry shorten the time needed to complete the otherwise tedious and time-consuming operations such as manufacturing process management, procurement, and production scheduling. And such a prospect alone is already enough to whip up much interest in Industry 4.0 among firms.Wen-Jinn Liang, vice president of Toes Opto-Mechatronics, a subsidiary of Tatung Company, notes that the advantage of Industry 4.0 is not limited to just reducing labor cost, as it also brings more added values. For example, Germany has been eager to promote the cyber physical system (CPS) integration concept which allows firms to use 3D virtual software, motion simulation robots, modules, and other equipment to detect design flaws and interferences. This allows them to preemptively repair weaknesses and increase design efficiency. This is a huge step to shortening the time-to-market process.Moving towards smart manufacturing requires strong foundation for automationSo how do firms build a smart manufacturing environment that is in line with the spirit of Industry 4.0? Liang believes there are two key foundations – the smart factory equipment maintenance system and automated precision assembly. In particular, automation is the necessary key. To achieve automation, firms need to plan an effective production line and continue to promote smooth workflow and standardization. If there is anything amiss in the preparation, automation may fail easily, resulting in setbacks on the road to Industry 4.0. With nearly 40 years of automation experience under its belt, Toes can help firms with the overall planning, laying a strong foundation for automation.To allocate the production line with efficiency, the layout of equipment must be carefully considered to prevent badly designed flow that could undermine efficiency in the future. Secondly, a smooth workflow needs to be based on the principle of "line balance," and extra workstations may be needed or flow may have to be diversified according to the bottleneck at each workstation. This can reduce an unnecessary waste of work hours. Standardization can be divided into two categories: procedure standardization and component standardization. The former can avoid negative effects on utilization rates while the latter can prevent equipment malfunction from lowering yields.When these basics are completed, the next step is to utilize robots, visual control and sensors to move towards the smart automated process. However, many firms who are interested have been deterred by a lack of return on investment (ROI) after evaluating the costs. For example, a firm may spend millions of dollars procuring a robotic arm, only to use it in simple procedures such as picking up and putting down parts. Meanwhile the idle time of the robotic arm is also higher than expected.Liang believes that to achieve smart automation, firms do not need to spend a lot of money. For example, production lines can use low-cost sensors and motion control systems; and with the help of feature recognition technology for working parts they can smartly achieve smart automation with reasonable ROI to quickly fulfill customers' needs for products of different colors, materials, and types.Automation combined with software analytics to form Industry 4.0 value chainSome production lines cannot add extra process steps to handle the entire production process due to a lack of space. This means no matter where the robot is placed, it may only be able to do simple jobs and the true value of this investment will be hidden.Addressing this type of problem, Toes utilizes the robots' characteristics of flexibility to come up with the idea of placing the conveyer to next work station above the physical space of the robot. With a specially-designed multi-functional claw, the robot can handle multiple tasks such as applying grease and baking at the same time. Once the baking process is completed, the robot can place the product onto the conveyer above its physical space for further processing. This is a creative idea.Liang says that if we imagine Industry 4.0 as a person, the smart automated movable parts of the equipment are like the arms and legs; the real intelligence comes from data collection and analytics, which may even have to rely on professional systems or algorithms to make smart decisions.Hence Toes assumes the role of providing smart automated SI solutions, which facilitate utilization rate or quality analysis based on data obtained from the equipment and sent to MES through the CIM interface. The data can further be used for cost analysis in the ERP system. At last, with cloud computing and big data analytics, the data can help firms make smart decisions to achieve the goal of both maximizing the volume of orders and efficiency, and minimizing cost.The value-added services Toes offers have begun to bloom in Taiwan and China. For example, with Toes' help, a China-based traditional manufacturer has reduced the number of labor by nine units per production line while increasing capacity by three-fold. The efficiency is astounding.Wen-Jinn Liang, vice president of Toes Opto-Mechatronics, points out the optimization of the panel cutting tool allows it to cut thin glass efficiently. It also sends the cutting data to MES for yield calculation and cutter lifespan prediction. This is a typical application of Industry 4.0.

Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces that it was awarded a Partner of the Year Award from TSMC during the TSMC Open Innovation Platform (OIP) Ecosystem Forum. Imagination received this recognition in the Graphics IP category for its collaboration with TSMC to develop highly optimized reference design flows and silicon implementations using Imagination's industry-leading PowerVR Series6 GPUs combined with TSMC's advanced process technologies, including 16nm FinFET process technology.TSMC selects the winners for the partner award based on customers' feedback, the number of tape-outs and wafer shipment enabled by the IP, along with the strength of technical support offered by the company.Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing, Imagination, says: "We're delighted to receive this honor from TSMC. Our long-time collaboration is focused on helping our mutual customers get the most out of Imagination's IP combined with TSMC's advanced processes. This includes developing improved design flows and engineering guidance through PPA projects such as our PowerVR Series6XT GPU on 16nm FinFET."Suk Lee, TSMC senior director, Design Infrastructure Marketing Division, says: "This award recognizes Imagination's excellence in delivering leading-edge graphics technology on our advanced process nodes. Imagination's commitment to delivering the highest quality results and strong product differentiation, enables our mutual customers to speed their time to volume production in the most efficient way."Imagination and TSMC are also working together to optimize Imagination's IP platforms incorporating PowerVR multimedia IP, MIPS CPUs, Ensigma RPUs and OmniShield security technology with the broad portfolio of TSMC processes to dramatically reduce time to volume and R&D costs for creating next generation smart, connected SoCs for IoT, automotive, consumer, enterprise and mobile markets.About Imagination Technologies, please visit: http://www.imgtec.com/

Traditional network frameworks have been built over decades, which is hard to change overnight. Luckily, with SDN and NFV, the flexible and cost-saving framework simplifies deployment, setup, and maintenance, which help telcos build customer-centric business models."Dedicated hardware like routers, switches, and servers in telco facilities serve for fixed duties. Rigid frameworks make it hard to design and configure, let along catering to customer needs. However, SDN and NFV bring elasticity to the telecom industry," said Hadwin Liu, Chief Architect of NEXCOM Network and Communication Solutions Business Group.NFV incorporates multiple servers as a big virtual one in telecom facilities. Using resource management platform like OpenStack, telcos can view hardware resources and set rules based on service demands to provision computing, storage, or bandwidth resources automatically.NFV quickens application deployment like load balancing, QoS, and eMBMS. Under this framework, the next generation CPE with computing capability serves as a node in telco facilities, allowing telcos to reallocate nodes' resources and to offer security services like VPN, firewall, and UTM with less capital investments and less time to market.Programmable network frameworks facilitate operation and maintenance. SDN adopts software to define network forwarding rules. With pre-defined algorithms, software dynamically changes how network traffic is forwarded while automating the deployment, configuration, and management of networks.NEXCOM's communication platform supports open-source software for SDN and NFV implementation, helping telcos integrate server resources, coordinate network functionality, apply centralized control, and dynamically adjust network performance to enhance competitiveness with customer-centric services, applications and low TCO.For more information about NEXCOM, please visit http://www.nexcom.com/SDN and NFV provide a flexible, cost-saving framework, helping telcos build customer-centric business models.

STAr Technologies is one of the leading test systems and probe cards supplier for the semiconductor industry since its establishment in 2000, announces the launch of a new family of systems called the Taurus-PDAT (Power Device Analytical Tester).Energy conversion and storage has become a critical sub-system for automotive industry, green technologies and clean energy management. One of the key components for such applications is power MOSFETs (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors) and IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors). In order to improve the efficiency, reliability and yield of such devices, manufacturers have to correctly characterize the dynamic electrical performance. The dynamic test data has not been able to meet requirements from system manufacturer as the parasitic effects of the test system have dominated the actual device dynamic performance data.The revolutionary test technologies in Taurus-PDAT has overcome such difficulties and enables manufacturers of Power MOSFETs and IGBTs to test dynamic AC tests in both characterization and high volume production. This is a technically-challenging combination, but one that enhances correlation confidence between the engineering lab and the back-end test floor.The Taurus-PDAT family's first offering includes AC dynamic test modes such as Switching, Reverse Bias Safe Operating Area, Diode Recovery, Gate Charge, Unclamped Inductive Load, and Short Circuit, performed at high energies such as 1500V/1000A short circuit and ultra-high bandwidth of greater than 10,000A/us inductive switching tests. Insert figure shows a family of inductive switching current curves, with varying gate voltages, with a fastest slew rate of 2000 A per µS.With selectable capacitor banks, the varying energy requirements of low, medium, and high voltage devices can be met, but it is PDAT's innovative stimulus and measurement designs that make it unique. Competitive solutions are difficult to move into production because of the limited space available close-in on device handlers. STAr enables this capability with low parasitic DUT board design with miniaturized components and integrated current sensors.Industry-leading slew rates are also enabled by the Taurus-PDAT integrated current sensors design, up to 10,000 Amps per µS, enables STAr to provide this capability without the considerations for long cablings between testers and IC handlers or probers. For protecting the system and handler sockets in case of catastrophic device failure, stored energy is managed automatically, and ultra-high-speed custom semiconductor circuit breakers are employed.Due to the complexity of dynamic power transistor tests, STAr works closely with our users to provide customized sockets, thermal chamber, and probing solutions to ensure that all technical requirements can be met with highest system level performance. The production software and debug environment (Helios) draws on over 15 years of the design team's experience, optimized for fast test time, with specialized environments for program development, debug, production operation, handler control, and data analysis. This open architecture software further enables engineers to optimize test algorithms and automate test flows as required for either characterization or production needs."In response to market demands, power electronics systems have driven innovation in the basic technologies of circuit technologies, control systems and power semiconductors," stated Dr. Choon-Leong Lou, CEO of STAr Technologies, "STAr Taurus-PDAT's revolutionary dynamic AC tests capabilities enables corresponding power devices to be developed, characterized and manufactured in a timely manner, with great confidence and lower costs."Inductive switching family of timing curves

Merck, the global leader in Display materials, has successfully completed the integration of AZ Electronic Materials into its organization early this year. For the first time, the company joins SEMICON TAIWAN 2015 under the brand name "Merck", to demonstrate its strong commitment to move into semiconductor material market. In an interview with DIGITIMES in Taipei, Dr. Bernd Reckmann, CEO of Life Science & Performance Materials, and Dr. Rico Wiedenbruch, Senior Vice President of Integrated Circuit Materials at Merck, talked about the reason Merck has decided to acquire AZ Electronics Materials, how will they gain a foothold in the semiconductor material market, and its commitment to Taiwan customers.Merck sees growth potential in the semiconductor market"Semiconductor is an interesting market to us", Dr. Reckmann said. "We see a lot of potential in the semiconductor industry. If you look long term, there is many opportunities in the consumer market and also in IOT trend, which will continue to prosper. Merck has always been well known for display materials, by tapping into the semiconductor industry, we see that both technologies is complementary to each other, and we are able to create more innovation by combining the both together. For Merck, it is important that we are not only dependent on the area of display, but also with IC products. For example, we can benefit from small devices because they also have sophisticated IC inside."As semiconductor process reaches the physical limit of lithography technology, Moore's Law is now facing tougher challenges than ever. According to Dr. Reckmann, the advances of new technology nodes highly depend on the more aggressive roles that material providers play. To break through the challenges of process shrinkage, it is vital to forge a closer partnership with customers to jointly develop the materials for the advanced nodes and beyond.Taiwan has a very key position in the semiconductor industry. The highly densified industrial cluster, complete value chain and housing leading semiconductor companies in foundry and packaging/testing services have attracted Merck to deepen its roots in Taiwan. With product offerings from AZ, Merck has increased the amount of resource dedicated to to support its business operations here, and help customers to develop innovative products. "I would like to reinforce the importance of Taiwan market to Merck and our commitment to support our customers to grow by investing in next generation technology", said Dr. Reckmann.Through acquisition, Merck offers a broader high tech materials product portfolioMerck already has proven success in display industry. Eyeing the future potentials of semiconductor market, Merck now can leverage a broader offering for the IC materials with the AZ acquisition. Dr. Reckmann explained the two important meanings behind this.First, with the addition of AZ, Merck is now able to provide materials for semiconductor industry. In particular, in performance material area, Merck can offer customers with more diversified product portfolios and a wider range of technology roadmap, so that we can maximize success with our customers.Second, customers now rely on strong partnerships and on our ability to deliver the ingredients that make the electronic devices for tomorrow faster, smarter and more attractive. Dr. Reckmann sees there are many similarity in the business: 1) focusing on high-quality material supply; 2) both semiconductor and display businesses are driven by innovation; and 3) business is driven by customer relation and customer proximity."We are pleased that the decision to acquire AZ was not just internal assessment. It is also a shared feeling among the investors. We also get constant positive feedback from customers in the electronic industry, who understand the logic behind the acquisition and have a lot of trust in Merck", Dr. Reckmann pointed out. The two companies have been officially integrated and operating as one since January this year, and as of now, the new organization is working well. Dr. Rico Wiedenbruch, who plays a crucial role for this, said, "The integration goes very smooth because we are both a very similar company. There is also similarity in the business model and customers. Our combined teams, driven by the needs of our customers, will be successful in capturing the compelling business opportunities ahead.""The integration of the two operations can't be so smooth and fast without the trust from all of our team members", Dr. Reckmann continued. "And we also benefit the learnings out from our recent acquisitions Serono into the Health Care business and Millipore into the Life Science Business. This was also applied to AZ."With a strong base in the developments of display materials and proven track records in terms of quality and innovations, Merck has been widely recognized by Taiwanese customers. By leveraging richer product portfolios obtained from AZ, Merck is fully confident to make inroads into semiconductor market to grasp bigger opportunities ahead.Merck will continue to support Taiwan semiconductor industry by expanding resourceTaiwanese companies are globally known to be extremely professional and skillful, and are flexible in production. Merck sees a lot of potential in future collaboration with the Taiwan leading companies. As a result, the company will commit to invest more sources to support its local customers. Furthermore, Merck will speed up the transaction of acquiring US-based Sigma Aldrich, which also include taking over its high tech material subsidiary – SAFC Hitech. With the joining of SAFC Hitech, Merck in Taiwan will expand its presence to Kaohsiung, where there is an additional site, and bring total solution technologies for our semiconductor customers.Regarding the current acquisition trends in the Semiconductor market, Dr. Reckmann believes that this is a common way to close gaps and have access to market and increase competitiveness. Taiwan is the powerhouse for global semiconductor manufacturing, and have proven success by helping customers to develop products and enhance competitiveness through advanced process technology, diligent engineers, and close customer relationships. Taiwan is also strong in packaging, where the competition is increasing. Therefore, it is crucial for packaging companies to stay strong and competitive in this area. Dr. Reckmann shares his point of view, "I think we should be aware that this trend will go on and create more strong players. The industry keeps changing, so we need to strengthen our competency to drive innovation continuously. Merck will always provide the best-in-class products and services for our customers. By growing with customers, we can create the win-win situation for each other."Dick Hsieh, managing director (left), Dr. Bernd Reckmann, member of the executive board (middle), and Dr. Rico Wiedenbruch, head of Integrated Circuit Material (right) of Merck at company booth in Semicon Taiwan 2015.

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