Component Qualification Validation
In quality assessment of semiconductor components, the engineering processes of characterization and qualification are important in order to finalise, verify and accept a product specification. This may be for the launch of a new device or for specific customer assurance to begin use of an existing specification for their project.
What is validation?
Validation is a sequence of electrical and mechanical test processes which determine whether the product being proposed meets a pre-existing specification. A detailed verification of the product is undertaken against the specification to assess whether device quality and all key performance indices are met.
Why validation?
- Quality assurance if a device is new or there is no significant mass production reliability data available
- Quality assurance when the application is high reliability and intolerant to failure or batch-to-batch variation. e.g. military, medical, space, oil and gas
- Quality assurance if component provenance is undocumented or there is uncertainty of suitability due to age, origin or a potential for counterfeit risk.
- On-going process control and production quality control, e.g. yield optimisation
- Measurement of critical parameters not otherwise testable in unencapsulated format.
How is validation performed?
A test process is applied which can follow either standard industry process, a customer product specific document such as a SCD (Source Control Drawing) or a bespoke customised test flow.
Typical steps are:
- Test concept development
- Software development
- Test hardware development
- Test verification
- Electrical testing
- exit inspection
- Data evaluation and documentation
The product is a data pack for further analysis.
View our parametric electrical test capability.