Why Roguevation

Semiconductor test has been experiencing a shift in two axes: Reduced Cost of Test and Increased Design for Test (DFT).  These two attributes are connected as DFT enables lower cost test hardware.  As a result, there are more alternatives for lower-cost sources of ATE hardware ranging from focused in-house solutions manufactured directly by semiconductor companies and test houses to broader FPGA-based solutions offered by smaller ATE providers.  Yet, while there are many examples where the complexity of the tester hardware has been reduced, the sophistication demands of the software continue to increase.  This creates an interesting dilemma for those considering tester hardware alternatives: Compromise on the software to gain the benefit of the lower cost hardware?  Compromise on the time to market by investing tens of man-years of software development?  Return all of the hardware cost benefits to fund internal software development efforts?

The challenge continues as historical ATE development begins with the tester hardware architecture first, followed by a software development effort.  This historical approach results in tester specific commands within the controlling software, often necessitating multi-week training classes for users to learn how to make test programs.

One solution is to utilize 3rd-party software to control the hardware.  This could offer the benefits of reduced time to market if the software was already available, reduced development cost as the 3rd-party development costs could be amortized, and a feature rich solution set available at first deployment.  However, this is only possible if this 3rd-party software existed.

Now there is Roguevation.