1. Purpose of the gate
Qualification samples is the third of the three sample milestones, after engineering samples and customer samples, and the last before the production release. Its parts have a different job. Engineering and customer samples exist so customers can evaluate and design in the part. Qualification samples exist so the part can be proved reliable as it will be made in volume, by the supplier's own stress tests and by customers who run their own qualification.
That job sets the standard. A qualification result counts only if the parts tested represent production: the final revision, the intended wafer and assembly sites, the production materials and the released test program. Parts from engineering lots with special handling, or from a site that will not make the volume, produce results that customers and auditors can reject. The gate checks the build before the long and costly stress tests begin.
The product lifecycle sets four criteria: parts built on the production flow, meaning the final revision, sites, materials and test program; lots as the qualification plan requires; traceability of each sample to its wafer lot, assembly lot and test; and customer qualification samples allocated to the customers who qualify the part themselves. The qualification plan, which names the standard for each target market, is approved here, and the qualification sample lots are built against it.
No engineering lifecycle gate is mapped to this milestone in the product data. The SoC lifecycle has a qualification samples gate of its own, which the product data matches to qualification start, where these parts enter test; it is listed under related documents. The gate sits inside the Sampling span of the Product status, which the production release closes.
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