December 7, 2021

Problem

Teradyne had less than a 7 month supply of a critical bipolar ASIC chip used in a production tester. Although they had paid for a new design by a large domestic semiconductor firm, the part did not work properly in their system. Teradyne did not have a schematic or spice models of the original part or know the details of the manufacturing process, they did have the mask database.

Solution

iSine scoured the world for a fab that could produce a bipolar chip similar to the obsolete part. They found a semiconductor fab in Europe that used a related process to the original. In and extremely short turnaround of less than four month, iSine converted the mask database into a new design that met the design rules of the new fab.

Results

The new high performance bipolar chip was completed in record time and worked in first silicon. It was a direct replacement for the obsolete chip. This averted the production line shut-down of Teradyne's best selling tester.

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Case Studies

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