Qualification start: gate review pack

1. Purpose of the gate

Qualification start is a short gate with a long consequence. Qualification stress tests take a long time and consume parts that cannot be replaced quickly. If they run on parts that are not representative of production, or against a plan that misses a test a market requires, the results do not count and the time is lost. The gate exists to prevent that, by checking that the parts were built on the production flow, that the plan is approved and complete for every target market, and that the business has started forecasting the demand that qualification is meant to unlock.

Being built on the production flow means the parts come from the intended wafer process, mask set, assembly site, package, materials and test flow, not from engineering lots with special handling. Where something differs, the difference must be justified as not affecting the results, or qualification must be planned to cover it. The product lifecycle sets three criteria: parts built on the production flow, the qualification plan approved naming the standard for each target market, and a demand forecast for the first year drafted.

The qualification plan names the stress tests, sample sizes, lots and acceptance criteria. Commercial and industrial products commonly follow JEDEC JESD47 and the JESD22 test methods; automotive products follow AEC-Q100, or AEC-Q104 for multichip modules; moisture sensitivity is classified under J-STD-020. The plan should say which standard applies to each market, and where the product is qualified to the strictest one so that a single qualification covers several markets.

The analog and mixed-signal, chiplet and FPGA lifecycles have their own production stages in which qualification happens; their production release gates later match the product's production release.