Semiconductor manufacturing employs high volume automated production lines using very complex wafer processing technologies requiring tight controls throughout the flow. Specific physical, optical, chemical and electrical tests are being performed at several stages in the manufacturing flow, to screen out wafer batches, wafers or single devices outside of the tight distribution limits of a given processing step. At the end of the wafer processing line, the wafers are tested using special test chips or test structures on the wafers and all product die are thoroughly tested for functionality. Finished encapsulated devices are tested again for full functionality and performance against the data sheet specification limits. New technologies, new products, new packages, are qualified for …
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