A successful distance-learning experience for IC test education

The paper describes an original educational experience that has been set by French universities to respond to IC manufacturer needs for electronics engineers having a double design and test competence. In each microelectronics academic center, students may be trained in the field of IC testing using real industrial up-to-date test resources. This is made possible by the concept of distributed remote access the authors have developed. In place of having some substandard test tools located in several university centers, it has been chosen to create a unique test center (the so-called CRTC) equipped with a high performing up-to-date ATE representative of real industrial test tools. The first working year of CRTC reveals a real demand in the field. About 30 trainings have been organized by CRTC during 1998. They have allowed about 150 people to be trained in characterization/production IC testing