Production test challenges for highly integrated mobile phone SOCs — A case study

Production test is a significant driver of semiconductor manufacturing cost. Test cost is highly influenced by the test concept of a product. This paper gives an overview over the test concept of a complex mobile phone SOC. The particular example is a highly integrated SOC for entry-level mobile phones. The SOC consists, besides digital processing units, of a variety of embedded M/S blocks, an embedded FM radio, and a complete RF transceiver for mobile communication. The paper describes the production test approaches for different groups of embedded circuitry, e.g. digital logic, mixed-signal, etc. Design-for-Test measures are briefly described. A breakdown of relative test times, proportional to production test cost, with respect to different groups of circuitry is presented. Limitations of existing test equipment and future challenges in order to further reduce test cost for complex SOCs are explained based on industrial implementation experience.