Credence, Cadence team up: Credence Systems continues to play design-for-test card - Test & Measurement

Electronic News, May 20, 2002 by Jeff Chappell

While automated test equipment (ATE) suppliers and EDA companies continue to converge on design-for-test (DFT), Credence Systems Corp. continues to be at the forefront of the movement.

Credence and Cadence Design Systems Inc. last week announced that they are joining each other in an alliance to provide comprehensive design-to-production DFT products based on an open architecture.

It's no secret that chipmakers have been badgering both sides of the DFT fence to work together to reduce test costs. As much as 75 percent of total test outlays, including test program development, simulation, characterization, debug and training, now come from non-capital equipment costs, according to the two companies.

For Credence, it's the latest in a series of steps taken--specifically, in the field of acquisitions--to acquire and incorporate EDA expertise in its ATE and related product offerings. In 1997 the company acquired DFT software provider Fluence Technology and followed that up with last year's acquisition of Integrated Measurement Systems Inc. (LMS), formerly apart of Cadence.

While 2001 was marked by EDA-ATE alliances, Credence said it believes this alliance with Cadence, on top of its previous DFT-related acquisitions, puts it in a unique position compared with its ATE competitors. "We feel we can play a leadership position in this area," said Keith Barnes, Credence VP and president of its IMS subsidiary. By crafting DFT products with Cadence that have an open architecture, competitors in both EDA and ATE as well as chipmakers would be able to use them, integrating them into their own design validation and production test environments, Barnes said.

Lee Todd, group director of strategic marketing at Cadence, and Barnes said the companies plan to introduce a series of products together over the next two years.

"We were ... at one point owned by Cadence, so we have a good insider's view as to how their tools work," Barnes remarked.

The fact that IMS was once part of Cadence and the two companies have maintained working ties did make Credence an obvious ATE partner, Todd explained. The fact that Credence was willing to develop open standards rather than proprietary offerings was the clincher, he added.

Initially, the companies will integrate their current software offerings, Cadence's NC Sim and IMS' Digital Virtual Test/Test Development Series, to create a design-to-production test product encompassing design implementation, test validation and debug and test program development regardless of ATE platform, they said. It will be geared for DFT engineers and offered through Cadence's sales channels.

By working out design bugs and working out a testable design before tapeout, mask costs and design times can be reduced as well as time spent getting to production, Barnes said. Furthermore, this lessens time spent in physically testing the chip, Todd noted.

As for future products, the companies said they envision DFT products for both front-end design and test and back-end process and test. Barnes said there were a number of things necessary for the company to accomplish in order to add additional capability to the front-end environment.

Beyond the design phase, 90nm features provide opportunities for improving photomask creation, yield enhancement and testing. "We're contemplating additional products that will make that flow work better," Barnes said.

Todd suggested that the continued rise of fabless companies and the corresponding spread of foundries and assembly and test houses are driving the need for DFT tools. The companies plan to market tools to IDMs as well as the fabless companies and their supply chains, he said.

"To have gone through and simulate the entire process much better than it has been done today is tantamount to what people are doing with systems design," Barnes added.