Chip lifecycle / Product lifecycle / Validation & Characterisation

Validation & Characterisation

Proving the first silicon or first built units against the product requirements: bring-up, validation in real systems, characterisation across voltage, temperature and process spread, documenting every known difference as errata, and deciding whether parts are good enough to put in customers' hands.

Where this stage sits

This stage with its neighbours. Each row is a discipline active here, shaded by how mature its work is by the end of each stage.

Stage

^AA04 Development

^A05 Validation & CharacterisationYou are here

^D06 Customer Sampling & Design-in

Business milestones

RQProduct requirements approved PAPlan approval and development commit CSCustomer samples DWDesign-in review

Engineering and operations milestones

SFSpecification freeze TOTape-out DRDesign release FSFirst silicon ESEngineering samples QSQualification samples QSTQualification start

Product status

Development

Sampling

Program management^AA

Tape-out and release^A

Bring-up tracking

Sample tracking

Business development and sales^A

Lead customers lined up

Quality and reliability^A

Qualification planning

Early reliability

Qualification plan

Supply chain and operations^A

Supplier readiness

Sample builds

Demand forecast draft

Finance^A

Budget tracking

Product cost tracking

Quote pricing

Legal and compliance^A

Agreements signed

Export classification

Sample agreements

Customer support^D

Knowledge base

Engineering leadership^A

Tape-out and release

Bring-up and validation^A

Errata and fixes

KeyConceptDevelopmentSamplingProductionDiscontinuedObsoleteFreeze or sign-off pointMilestone for one item; the rest of the work carries onMilestone gateYou are here: Validation & CharacterisationAI impactDisruption (red)Augmentation (blue)Opportunity (green)How AI is changing the workWhat the steps mean What the codes mean

Show this chart as a list

Stages

Development^AA
Validation & Characterisation (this stage)^A
Customer Sampling & Design-in^D

Product status

Development: Development, ends at Design release
Sampling: Validation & Characterisation to Customer Sampling & Design-in

Business milestones

Engineering and operations milestones

Disciplines

Product marketing^A
- Development: Messaging draft (Development). Positioning and messaging drafted from the approved plan while the design is built.
- Validation & Characterisation: Product brief (Sampling). Positioning tested with lead customers on samples and launch preparation under way.
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Message testing (Sampling). Positioning tested with lead customers on samples and launch preparation under way.
Product management^A
- Development: Requirements control (Development). Product requirements held under change control while the design is completed and released.
- Validation & Characterisation: Sample plan (Sampling). Sample plan run and requirements compliance shown against lead customer feedback.
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Customer samples (Sampling). Sample plan run and requirements compliance shown against lead customer feedback.
Program management^AA
- Development: Tape-out and release (Development). Design release coordinated with the sign-off of every engineering lifecycle.^A
- Validation & Characterisation: Bring-up tracking (Sampling). Sampling, qualification and production readiness coordinated to the plan.
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Sample tracking (Sampling). Sampling, qualification and production readiness coordinated to the plan.
Business development and sales^A
- Development: Lead customers lined up (Development). Lead customers engaged on the plan and lined up for samples.
- Validation & Characterisation: Sample placement (Sampling). Samples placed with lead customers and design-ins pursued into a pipeline.
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Design-in pursuit (Sampling). Samples placed with lead customers and design-ins pursued into a pipeline.^A; First design wins (milestone for one item)
Field applications^D
- Development: Evaluation kit plan (Development). Customer use cases written for the product requirements, then evaluation hardware and reference designs planned while the design is built.
- Validation & Characterisation: Evaluation kit (Sampling). Evaluation kits and reference designs supporting customer design-ins.; Evaluation kit ready (milestone for one item)
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Design-in support (Sampling). Evaluation kits and reference designs supporting customer design-ins.^A
Quality and reliability^A
- Development: Qualification planning (Development). Qualification plan drafted against the released design.
- Validation & Characterisation: Early reliability (Sampling). Qualification plan approved and parts from the production flow entering qualification.
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Qualification plan (Sampling). Qualification plan approved and parts from the production flow entering qualification.
Supply chain and operations^A
- Development: Supplier readiness (Development). Suppliers selected and the supply chain plan made final, with suppliers ready to build at the design release.
- Validation & Characterisation: Sample builds (Sampling). Demand forecast drawn from lead customers and production readiness prepared.
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Demand forecast draft (Sampling). Demand forecast drawn from lead customers and production readiness prepared.
Finance^A
- Development: Budget tracking (Development). Development budget tracked against the plan.
- Validation & Characterisation: Product cost tracking (Sampling). Budget and product cost tracked through sampling and qualification.
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Quote pricing (Sampling). Budget and product cost tracked through sampling and qualification.
Legal and compliance^A
- Development: Agreements signed (Development). Licence, partner and freedom to operate reviews done, agreements signed and export classification started.
- Validation & Characterisation: Export classification (Sampling). Sample agreements and export classification in place for sample shipments.; Export classification (milestone for one item)
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Sample agreements (Sampling). Sample agreements and export classification in place for sample shipments.
Customer support^D
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Knowledge base (Sampling). Support knowledge base started from lead customer feedback.
Engineering leadership^A
- Development: Tape-out and release (Development). Every engineering lifecycle signed off and the design released.; Engineering sign-off (milestone for one item)
- Validation & Characterisation: Bring-up and validation (Sampling). Silicon and system validated, with errata documented for the samples.^A
- Customer Sampling & Design-in: Errata and fixes (Sampling). Silicon and system validated, with errata documented for the samples.

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