Teradyne and Synopsys Collaborate to Deliver Full Benefits of Design-for-Testability -DFT- Techniques.

Business/Technology Editors

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2001

Companies Leverage Design Knowledge for

Yield Improvement of SoC Devices

Teradyne (NYSE:TER) and Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS) today announced a partnership targeted at making the full benefits of DFT, of achieving lower cost, higher yield, and faster time to market, more easily accessible to semiconductor suppliers. The Teradyne-Synopsys cooperation will include creating new software links between Teradyne's automatic test equipment (ATE) and Synopsys' DFT-related electronic design automation (EDA) tools, making possible new efficiencies in system-on-chip (SoC) development and production. The two companies will focus first on developing direct interoperability between the Synopsys TetraMAX(R) Automated Test Pattern Generation (ATPG), with built-in failure diagnosis capability, and Teradyne ATE, including the Catalyst, Tiger, J973, and J750 testers. This new Teradyne-Synopsys failure diagnostic flow under development will be previewed in the Teradyne booth at the International Test Conference (ITC), held this week, October 30 to November 1, 2001 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Fast, accurate failure diagnosis is increasingly important because quicker time-to-market and higher yields are gated by how quickly and effectively defect locations in manufactured SoCs are identified and remedied. The high level of integration in SoC devices in particular accentuates the need for new, fast defect localization methods. Given the increasing use of DFT tests like scan, the best method to identify defect locations is leveraging diagnostic capability, like the TetraMAX ATPG scan tool. However, SoC vendors face considerable difficulty in executing DFT-based failure diagnosis due to the lack of standardized links and tools between development systems and ATE to manage the total diagnostic process from tester results to defect identification. As a result, despite increasing usage of scan in SoC design, DFT-based failure diagnosis is underutilized, limiting the potential for faster production ramps and higher yields of complex SoC devices.

The Teradyne-Synopsys DFT failure diagnostic flow breaks new ground by providing integrated links and tools to isolate fault locations based on tester data and identify the dominant defects impairing faster time to volume and higher yields. This highly automated tool will enable SoC vendors to concentrate on fixing critical defects in design or manufacturing, eliminating manual post processing of tester data and minimizing the execution of misguided physical failure analysis.

Antun Domic, senior vice president and general manager, Synopsys Nanometer Analysis and Test Business Unit commented, "The Teradyne-Synopsys alliance provides our customers with the full benefits of DFT through manufacturing by creating new potential for design-based failure diagnosis for faster test development. This collaboration is yet another demonstration of our ultimate goal of offering comprehensive DFT solutions to help our customers achieve the best results and productivity in their manufacturing test environments."

"Our SoC customers increasingly use DFT in design and are looking for new integrated tools to help them achieve their goals for faster time-to-volume, lower costs, and higher quality," said Marc Levine, vice president, Teradyne. "The new automated flow for failure diagnostics gives our customers new means of leveraging Teradyne testers and Synopsys tools for yield improvement benefits throughout the life of their devices, from first silicon to volume production. We're happy to be working with Synopsys and our mutual customers to deliver this total solution."

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS), headquartered in Mountain View, California, creates leading electronic design automation (EDA) tools for the global electronics market. The company delivers advanced design technologies and solutions to developers of complex integrated circuits, electronic systems, and systems on a chip. Synopsys also provides consulting and support services to simplify the overall IC design process and accelerate time to market for its customers. Visit Synopsys at http://www.synopsys.com.

About Teradyne

Teradyne (NYSE: TER) is the world's largest supplier of automatic test equipment and is also a leading supplier of high performance interconnection systems. Manufacturers of semiconductors, circuit assemblies, and voice and broadband telephone networks use Teradyne's test products. Manufacturers of communications and computing systems central to building networking infrastructure use Teradyne's backplane assemblies and high-density connectors. The company had sales of $3.0 billion in 2000 and currently employs about 8000 people worldwide. For more information visit www.teradyne.com.

Synopsys and TetraMAX are registered trademarks of Synopsys, Inc.