Xcerra’s Shelley looks to cut RF test cost for IoT

San Francisco, CA. “Wireless IoT semiconductor devices present cost driven economies to the market far different than present day wireless designs,” according to John Shelley, director of product marketing at Xcerra. Delivering a presentation titled “Dropping the Dime on Low Cost RF Test” at Test Vision 2020, Shelley said that power and RF pins are expensive tester resources that will hinder IoT device vendors’ ability to achieve adequate profit margins. A change in mindset, he said, is necessary to “…attack the technical challenges and drive a new test paradigm for IoT device technologies.”

He cited the increasing cost pressures—noting, for example, that Wi-Fi capability that cost $1.30 in 2012 will cost less than $0.75 in 2017. Similar price reductions will apply to other wireless standards, from ANT+ to ZigBee.

He also cited McKinsey research showing that test costs are falling in proportion to assembly and fab costs. And test costs themselves are shifting from predominantly being in the tester to the fixture, probe card, and handler. Load-board space is at t premium, he said, leading to multisite test limitations, and WLCSP is changing the manufacturing flow.

Shelley offered several suggestions—thinking in terms of a test cell rather than tester and handler, for example, or overcome load-board limitations to increase multisite test. Or even eliminate or minimize probes and fixtures through over-the-air (OTA) test.

You can download the full presentation here (registration required).

Test Vision 2020 was held July 15-16 in conjunction with SEMICON West.