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LATEST NEWS
Test Advantage Software renamed Test Acuity Solutions
TEMPE, Arizona USA (September 17, 2012) -- Test Advantage Software announced today that it is changing its name to Test Acuity Solutions™ to better represent the value proposition of its software products. The company will begin to use the new name immediately, as well as the acronym TAS. There has been no change to the company’s ownership.
Acuity is defined as “the capacity of the eye to see fine detail, measured by determining the finest detail that can just be detected.” Test Acuity Solutions focuses on exposing device performance variability on a per die basis across the semiconductor back-end manufacturing processes, thereby leveraging electrical test, optical and physical measurement results in order to enhance product quality, maximize overall yield, and optimize equipment utilization through the application of adaptive feed-forward methodologies as represented in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS).
Streetwise™, Test Acuity Solutions’ leading software product line, continues to expand its customer base and offer increasingly capable user enhancements, features, and functions. Test Acuity Solutions is currently rolling out its next major release featuring an enhanced Streetwise™ Engineering user interface. This new release focuses on providing superior user effectiveness in developing advanced parametric and spatial, multi-flow analysis strategies. A primary objective was to expand the direct access data transfer capabilities between the Streetwise™ Engineering environment and the Streetwise™ Production servers to a new level of capability. The new connectivity enables advanced flexibilities to the recipe development engineer for the real-time access to historical analysis data for optimizing new analysis strategies, as well as adding additional features and functions within the recipe management environment for production release and maintaining recipe revision control.
“The name Test Acuity Solutions better captures the capabilities our software solutions provide users in terms of being able to expose multi-dimensional product performance marginalities across multiple process intercepts and to proactively act upon it with the use of customer specified device classification rules in their production environment,” commented Fabrice Dechoux, CEO of Test Acuity Solutions.
About Test Acuity Solutions:
Test Acuity Solutions, Inc. (TAS) was incorporated as Test Advantage, Inc. in 1997 in Tempe, Arizona, USA where the company is headquartered. With production proven software solutions since 2002 and a tier-one customer base of IDMs, fabless companies, and OSATs, Test Acuity Solutions has established itself not only as an industry pioneer but has emerged as a technology leader for back-end semiconductor manufacturing technologies necessary to achieve next generation cost and quality models. More information is available at www.testacuitysolutions.com.
Freescale Semiconductor deploys advanced technology for achieving Next Generation Device Quality and Reliability with Test Advantage STREETWISE software
TEMPE, AZ. Freescale and Test Advantage announced today that they have implemented breakthrough technology that removes the historical wall between in process wafer manufacturing data and die electrical test data in order to target hybrid automotive quality requirements.
Automotive device supplier Freescale Semiconductor located in Toulouse, France is driving quality and reliability levels to ever higher standards in its manufacturing operations by employing Streetwise, an innovative software technology from Arizona-based Test Advantage. Streetwise is a unique software platform that provides advanced multi process flow data analysis capabilities for exposing semiconductor device performance marginalities, thereby dramatically improving overall device quality and reliability.
Zero defect programs have become a norm in the automotive industry where quality is critical to the safety and reliability of a company's products.
Freescale and Test Advantage have combined their respective expertise and technology to extend statistical post processing analysis to include wafer sort electrical test screenings, final outgoing inspection and in-process wafer fab parameters. Automatic multi-flow and across flow analysis of these new data sources generated from as many as ten (10) wafer manufacturing process flows will allow achievement of unprecedented quality levels for next generation automotive applications.
Historically, there have been incredible amounts of wafer fab parametric data (average ratio 1/10; one electrical test for ten in process wafer fab measurements) that have been used solely to monitor the wafer manufacturing processes. This same wafer fab data is a rich source of information that has not been leveraged to its full potential. Typically, in-process wafer fab measurements are stored into a database for lot processing traceability and process control. Freescale and Test Advantage have implemented unique smoothing algorithms in order to translate sampled data from in-process wafer fab measurements into in-process die measurements without adding extra controls in the wafer fab. This development allows die level screening and detection of potential marginal device performance through multi-flow analysis classification rules based on statistical post processing.
"Freescale is now post processing twenty-four (24) wafer lots in a matter of minutes with up to ten (10) flows of in-process and electrical test die data per wafer in a single pass using Streetwise, whereas historically if this same comprehensive analysis were performed, it could take up to two (2) weeks", stated Frederic Tilhac, Test Advantage Technical Program Manager.
"By incorporating wafer fab data using Streetwise advanced multi-flow analysis and device classification strategies, we are confident in our ability to meet our customers' demands for the next generation automotive quality standards demanded by our hybrid application markets and improve our manufacturing processes," said Alain Deram, Technical Director of Power Technology at Freescale Semiconductor.
"Freescale's deployment of Streetwise for their leading edge product applications is a tribute to our advanced technology that enables our customers to achieve next generation quality levels demanded by future automotive applications," commented Fabrice Dechoux, CEO of Test Advantage. Streetwise is a unique, production-proven platform that enhances any device manufacturer's competitive advantage.
About Freescale Toulouse: The Freescale Toulouse facility was built in 1967 and is not only a semiconductor manufacturing site but also includes R&D, Sales and Marketing targeting Analog / Mixed-mode Power ICs and RF chips for automotive and networking infrastructure.
Test Advantage, Streetwise, Production,Streetwise Engineering are trademarks or registered trademarks of Test Advantage, Inc. in the United States and in other countries. Other product and or service names mentioned herein may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.
Single device tracking for feed forward adaptive test
SAN JOSE, CA.- October 1, 2009, KGD Conference: Greg LaBonte - Test Advantage -It is clear that new, innovative manufacturing methodologies must be applied during the back-end wafer sort, final test, and assembly processes in order to reduce manufacturing costs while continuing to improve outgoing device quality.
While wafer sort is focused on testing device yield to specification, advanced statistical post processing methodologies compliment this process with testing yield based on wafer fabrication and assembly process performance. Combine the strengths of these data sets along with end to end single device traceability throughout the backend manufacturing process and you have an adaptive test opportunity to reduce device manufacturing costs and at the same time improve device quality.
Device Traceability throughout the back-end process from wafer parametric test through final test now provides a backbone to facilitate correlations between the advanced statistical post processing data and all subsequent process steps in order to optimize equipment utilization and improve device quality.
Tempe-Based Test Advantage Named to the Inc. 5000 for Second Year in a Row: Company Ranked Number 4868 in 2008 Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America
NEW YORK, NY./ TEMPE, AZ. - August 20, 2008 For the second successive year, Inc. has named Test Advantage, Inc. in its Inc. 5,000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the United States.
Test Advantage, a leading supplier of both custom-configured Automated Test Equipment (ATE) and innovative software technology tools for semiconductor testing, was founded in 1997 and has enjoyed significant and sustained growth. The company was ranked number 3,110 in the Inc. 5,000 in 2007. The Inc. 5,000 award is focused on revenue growth over the last few years, which for Test Advantage has continued to be strong, driven by the company's established and growing market share of its hardware and software activities. Since its inception, Test Advantage has shipped several hundred quality ATE systems and ATE upgrades and licensed thousands of software nodes to its customers worldwide.
"To be ranked once again amongst the fastest growing private companies is a considerable achievement for our company," commented Fabrice Dechoux, CEO of Test Advantage. "That we have been able to maintain a growth rate worthy of the Inc. 5,000, even though we are now in our 12th business year, is testament to the dedication of our team in maintaining our position as the premier resource for semiconductor test capacity and technology."
"Our second annual Inc. 5000 continues the most ambitious project in business journalism," said Inc. 5000 Project Manager Jim Melloan. "The Inc. 5000 gives an unrivaled portrait of young, under reported companies across all industries doing fascinating things with cutting-edge business models, as well as older companies that are still showing impressive growth."
Methodology
The 2008 Inc. 5000 list measures revenue growth from 2004 through 2007. To qualify, companies must be U.S.-based and privately held, for profit, independent (not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies) as of December 31, 2007, and have had at least $200,000 in revenue in 2004, and $2 million in 2007. Companies can apply for next year's Inc. 5000 by registering with IncBizNet, Business
About Test Advantage, Inc. Founded in 1997, Test Advantage offers hardware and software solutions to the semiconductor industry through its Quality ATE Division and its Software Products Division. Combining 100-plus years of in-house test hardware and software for test expertise, the company delivers a competitive edge to all of its clients. The Quality ATE Division specializes in rebuilt, Configured-to-Match ATE systems. The Software Products Division develops and deploys leading-edge, proprietary software to automate manufacturing quality and throughput improvements throughout the manufacturing test process. The Tempe, Arizona-based company operates worldwide, maintaining offices in Germany, France and Singapore. More information about Test Advantage Inc. is available at http://www.testadvantagesoftware.com/. About Inc.com
Inc.com, the daily resource for entrepreneurs, delivers how-to guides, advice, tools, breaking news, and rich multi-media to help business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses. Inc.com offers dynamic marketing solutions to help advertisers effectively reach Inc.com's audience of business leaders. Visit http://www.inc.com.
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Test Advantage participated as a Bronze Sponsor in the 2008 IEEE European Test Symposium held in Lago Maggiore, Italy
Lago Marggiore, Italy-May 26, 2008: Frederic Tilhac, European Technical Program Manager for Test Advantage Software Products, presented a comprehensive paper during the Test Engineering Vendor Session addressing all the key elements for implementing an effective DPPM improvement program.
Effective DPPM improvement programs require test program qualification and post-probe data analysis.
The need for quality improvement in semiconductor manufacturing processes has continued to be driven by customer demands for improved product reliability. Sort test yield impacts have made it apparent to the semiconductor IDMs that DPPM improvement programs must comprehend effectiveness and efficiency when employing outlier detection methodologies. Competitive pressure for suppliers to improve both cost and quality is now being driven from broader markets than the traditional automotive markets. It is realized that cross departmental sort test functions must leverage joint efforts in order to implement the most effective solutions. Combined data analysis strategies in both device test program development and manufacturing post-test data analysis are elemental in this solution.
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