1. Purpose of the gate
The production test and calibration programs, limits and hardware are released, based on characterisation across temperature, supply and stimulus.
From this gate, every part is screened and calibrated by these programs. The gate checks that limits come from characterisation distributions with justified guard bands, that every specified parameter is either tested or shown by design and characterisation, and that results agree between testers, handlers, stimulus units and sites.
It is also the gate for interface conformance evidence. The serial interface, such as I2C or MIPI I3C, has been tested against its standard on silicon, and the interface conformance test report is filed as release evidence. Customers increasingly ask for this before they qualify a sensor on their platform.
The test platform decision is frozen here. Moving to a different platform later means new correlation and may need customer notice.
Test time is part of the decision too. A program that screens well but takes too long on scarce stimulus equipment will limit the ramp; the gate compares test and calibration time with the cost model and the capacity plan before release.
10 more sections for registered members.