INTEGRATED SYSTEM PROVIDES SIMULTANEOUS BURN-IN AND TESTING.

Historically, the burn-in process has been considered the sweatshop segment of backend integrated circuit production. Dedicated chambers have created bottlenecks in production flow. Batch loading and unloading have caused board mix-ups, significant downtime of capital equipment and unfavorable working conditions. Along with these problems is the reality burn-in takes a long time. Traditional system design constraints provide very little scope for lessening this time or for providing adequate information about device behavior under environmental stress. Many specific drive circuits currently under development are discussed which involve the test and monitoring of devices during burn-in.