Achieving stretched capacity goal through integrated engineering and manufacturing excellence

Achieving Stretched Equipment Capacity and High Productivity in High Volume Manufacturing is a gritty challenge to drive down cost continuously in this competitive chipset market. With unprecedented volume ramp of both key products in Q4'99, the Test Module faced a shortage of two to four testers. Driving through working group, a refurbishment process was achieved successfully resulting in 60% reduction of tester faults thus improving Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) from 140hrs to 160hrs. With the implementation of improved pogo pins at Tester Interface Unit (TIU) and test head had improved cleaning frequency from 5k to 90k, one-sum test yield from 88.7% to 97.5% and reduced non-genuine SBL from 10% to less than 3% consistently. The new design of JLSI handler floating head also increased the Mean Time Between Assist (MTBA) from 0.79hrs to 1.16hrs. Besides, hardware retest implementation has also seen reduction in retest rate from 10% to 2.1% and 5% for both key products. Manufacturing also helped in optimizing the tester loading with standby lots and zero idling time. Consequently, machine utilization exceeded 80% with additional volume supported flawlessly thus avoiding additional testers. The strategy is to always look into ways of stretching machine capability in order to support additional volume.