1. Purpose and scope
Qualification shows that parts built on the production flow, in their production packages, survive the stresses of their intended use for their intended life. For an FPGA it covers what any integrated circuit needs, such as operating life at temperature, temperature cycling, humidity, electrostatic discharge and latch-up, and also what is particular to programmable devices: the configuration memory, whose upset rate, retention or endurance depends on its technology, and the security features, whose keys and tamper responses must keep working over life.
The production test program is released here too. Because the fabric cannot be tested by scan alone, production test loads many test configurations, each exercising part of the logic, routing, memories and arithmetic, alongside scan and built-in self-test of hard IP, memory test and repair, boundary scan, and the binning tests that sort parts into speed grades. Test coverage of the fabric is reviewed as part of the release, and test time, often dominated by configuration loading, is managed.
Three gates fall in the stage. Qualification start confirms parts and plan are ready. Qualification passed, the third technical readiness review, confirms the device passed to the chosen standard with the test program released. Production release opens the family member to volume orders.
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