Test assembly including a test die for testing a semiconductor product die
First Claim
1. A test assembly for testing product circuitry of a product die, the test assembly comprising:
- a test die having test circuitry for testing the product circuitry of the product die, the test die being separate from the product die, the test circuitry generated by;
(i) concurrently designing the test circuitry and the product circuitry into a unified design, (ii) partitioning the test circuitry from the product circuitry, and (iii) fabricating the test circuitry into the test die; and
an interconnection substrate for electrically coupling the test die to a host controller that communicates with the test die.
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Accused Products
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention concerns a test assembly for testing product circuitry of a product die. In one embodiment, the test assembly includes at test die and an interconnection substrate for electrically coupling the test die to a host controller that communicates with the test die. The test die may be designed according to a design methodology that includes the step of concurrently designing test circuitry and a product circuitry in a unified design. The test circuitry can be designed to provide a high degree of fault coverage for the corresponding product circuitry generally without regard to the amount of silicon area that will be required by the test circuitry. The design methodology then partitions the unified design into the test die and the product die. The test die includes the test circuitry and the product die includes the product circuitry. The product and test die may then be fabricated on separate semiconductor wafers. By partitioning the product circuitry and test circuitry into separate die, embedded test circuitry can be either eliminated or minimized on the product die. This will tend to decrease the size of the product die and decrease the cost of manufacturing the product die while maintaining a high degree of test coverage of the product circuits within the product die. The test die can be used to test multiple product die on one or more wafers.
127 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A test assembly for testing product circuitry of a product die, the test assembly comprising:
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a test die having test circuitry for testing the product circuitry of the product die, the test die being separate from the product die, the test circuitry generated by;
(i) concurrently designing the test circuitry and the product circuitry into a unified design, (ii) partitioning the test circuitry from the product circuitry, and (iii) fabricating the test circuitry into the test die; and
an interconnection substrate for electrically coupling the test die to a host controller that communicates with the test die. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
bond pads; and
special contact pads for receiving spring contact elements.
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4. The test assembly of claim 3, wherein the bond pads and special contact pads have different heights.
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5. The test assembly of claim 1, further comprising contact elements to electrically couple the test circuitry and the product circuitry.
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6. The test assembly of claim 5, wherein the contact elements have different heights.
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7. The test assembly of claim 5, wherein the plurality of contact elements comprise spring contact elements.
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8. The test assembly of claim 5, wherein the plurality of contact elements comprise contact balls.
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9. The test assembly of claim 1, wherein the test circuitry is configured to test AC parametrics of the product circuitry.
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10. The test assembly of claim 1, wherein the test circuitry is configured to test DC parametrics of the product circuitry.
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11. The test assembly of claim 1, wherein the test circuitry is configured to program the product circuitry.
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12. The test assembly of claim 1, wherein the test die is formed on a semiconductor wafer.
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13. The test assembly of claim 1, wherein the test circuitry is configured to test product circuitry of more than one product die.
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14. The test assembly of claim 1, further comprising a second test die electrically coupled to the interconnect substrate.
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15. The test assembly of claim 14, wherein the second test die includes test circuitry for testing the product circuitry of the product die.
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16. The test assembly of claim 15, wherein the second test die includes test circuitry for testing product circuitry of another product die.
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17. The test assembly of claim 14, further comprising a third test die electrically coupled to, and communicating with, the first die and the second test die.
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18. The test assembly of claim 17, wherein the third test die includes circuitry for performing a function that is commonly used by the first and second test die to test circuitry of the first and second product die.
Specification