Advanced Packaging - From The Editor

Last week, the Advanced Packaging team was on the road once again, this time to the BITS Workshop in Phoenix, AZ. As sole media sponsors of this event — the only one of its kind dedicated to socketing and related technologies — we were privy to all sorts of interesting discussion, debate, and technology innovations, such as the Pillcam, a diagnostic tool in the form of a capsule that is swallowed, taking video footage of an individual's digestive tract as it makes its way through the body in nine or ten hours. What also caught my attention was the debate over testing standards — especially for innovations — and whether or not they are realistic in this economic climate.

During his keynote address, "The impact of New Applications and Increasing Device Complexity on the Future of Testing," Steve Appleton, Chairman, CEO and president of Micron Technology, talked about the dichotomy between a device's actual lifetime, and its tested life expectancy. Historically, simulation and theoretical testing have been crucial to ensuring the integrity of a product. Industry standards dictate that some products be life-cycle tested to last 100 years. This is a costly process, and according to Appleton, may be unnecessary, and based on an old concept.

At Micron, manufacturers of such semiconductor devices as DRAM, NAND flash memory, and CMOS image sensors, test is becoming a smaller percentage of manufacturing costs. Appleton says this is due to a different mindset fostered at the company. Namely, if a product isn't expected to last 100 years, why spend the money testing it to make sure if it does? The reality is that most consumer devices are replaced after just a few years, and sometimes months. It's more realistic to ensure a product can last 1.5 to 2 years.

A proponent of "real life" testing over laboratory testing, Appleton illustrated his with a video of the Baja 1,000, a 1,000 mile, off-road race along Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. This test involved four teams of executives driving off-road vehicles specially outfitted with Micron image sensors and Lexar flash memory cards. The idea was to how these devices held up in harsh environments.

Appleton suggests that testing devices become application specific, and should be determined based on the product's expected lifecycle. On the other hand, certain devices, such as tire pressure and air bag sensors, need to be assuredly reliable over a lengthy time period. When you know what something is going to be used for, then test according to that expected lifecycle, he said. If you don't know what application a device is going into, that's when you test it to standard specifications.

For a room full of socket suppliers, who are already struggling with the standards issue for socket design, and how it affects their costs, read the March 2007 cover story) this may be a bitter pill to swallow, (But not nearly as big as the Pillcam). This type of issue may become a reality as consumers continue to drive market trends to shortened lifecycles.

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