ATE data collection - a comprehensive requirements proposal to maximize ROI of test

ATE customers are increasingly viewing a tester that does not facilitate easy and consistent access to the test data as a barrier to their profitability. The data is needed towards various ends like, statistical post processing (SPP) for die binning, reliability improvement, burn-in elimination, process/yield improvement, adaptive control, product characterization, test floor statistical process control (SPC), calibration & test repeatability to name a few. subcontractor & foundry manufacturing have only increased the complexity of the task. The main premise of This work is that: "Taking the measurement" is the ATE vendor's expertise, "Evaluating the measurement" is the customer's expertise and we have a proposal to clear the confusion and maximize the ROI of test. The paper discusses the current "state-of-the-art " in terms of data collection, illustrates the windfall of benefits reaped from utilizing the ATE data and presents a proposal on how to improve the situation.