Optimal+, a global big data analytics provider for the semiconductor industry, announced that it has collaborated with NI, a leading provider of platform-based test systems that enable engineers and scientists to solve the world’s greatest engineering challenges, so that the entire suite of solutions from Optimal+ will be supported by NI’s Semiconductor Test System (STS) via the Optimal+ Proxy starting in Q1 2016.
The Internet of Things (IoT) will drive explosive growth in the semiconductor industry and semiconductor companies are looking for every edge to increase productivity and efficiency while maintaining high quality manufacturing and maximizing product yield. Optimal+ will supply their real-time solutions on the STS to maximize production efficiency on the manufacturing floor. Optimal+ solutions are already in full production use at leading IDMs, OSATs, and fabless companies, enabling them to optimize their manufacturing supply chain based on the industry’s most complete, high-integrity test data. The ability to analyze data on the open, modular architecture of the STS will reduce hardware test costs, improve throughput and increase overall quality.
"Semiconductor companies are striving to increase productivity, thus the focus on reducing test time and increasing throughput. This has increased the adoption of both the NI Semiconductor Test System (STS) and the Big Data Analytics solutions from Optimal+ in the semiconductor manufacturing space over the past few years,” said Jessy Cavazos, Industry Director of Test & Measurement at Frost & Sullivan. “The STS’s open and modular software and hardware facilitates the integration of Optimal+ software adding significant value to customers. By collaborating together, NI and Optimal+ are enabling semiconductor customers to take production, productivity, and product quality to new heights, a sector in which single digit improvements can save millions of dollars."
About the Optimal+ Proxy
Optimal+ employs a lightweight agent called a “Proxy” to seamlessly acquire data from the STS using NI TestStand test management software. Running in the background of the STS, the Optimal+ Proxy gives users the power of adaptive testing, escape prevention, real-time data analytics, and globally consolidated data.
The Proxy is a full-featured agent with the ability to acquire test data events in real time, independent of the test data logging format or system. This gives the Proxy the advantage of a common output structure, regardless of test program or data logging design. In addition to test events, Proxy is capable of acquiring the STS host information, tester software and host/instrument hardware configuration data. From a control perspective, Proxy is able to send control commands to TestStand to adaptively re-sequence tests to achieve the best possible throughput while maintaining full test coverage. Adaptive testing may also be used to augment and fine tune test coverage based on the needs of the individual device, using techniques such as data feed forward.
“As long-time advocates for the acquisition, analysis, and presentation of Big Analog Data solutions, NI recognized the value of the Optimal+ solutions and prioritized collaboration,” said Eran Rousseau, Vice President of Product Management at Optimal+. “We found the NI Semiconductor Test System (STS) to be an excellent fit for our solutions and mutual customers. The robustness of NI TestStand enabled us to have a functional prototype working in just a few weeks. We look forward to working with NI to expand our respective solutions to many new customers.”
While the Proxy is a critical integration point for production test data, it can also be used for bench test data collection as well. Since the Proxy is integrated with TestStand, it can be used on any NI PXI test system, including those used for system-level testing, bench testing, and board/module level testing.
“With each new deployment, the NI Semiconductor Test System (STS) continues to prove its ability to lower costs and decrease time to market,” said Ron Wolfe, Vice President of Semiconductor Test at NI. “Helping customers gain additional value and insight from their test data through the collaboration with Optimal+ is a natural complement to NI’s open, platform-based approach and further evidence of our commitment to upsetting the status quo for RF and mixed-signal production test.”
Optimal+ Global Ops, Test Floor Ops, TTR, Escape Prevention, Outlier Detection and EXACT are immediately available for the STS. To learn more about these solutions, visit www.optimalplus.com/ and www.ni.com/sts.