1. Purpose of the gate
First silicon proves that wafers have come back from the fab. Before the bench work of bring-up can start in earnest, the dies must be cut, assembled in a package and tested, so the lab receives parts that are known to power up, pass their structural tests and carry a test record. This gate is the point where the package and the test program meet real silicon for the first time. It confirms that the first parts are assembled, that the test program runs on them at final test, and that tested parts have reached the people who will bring them up.
Four criteria apply. The first parts must be assembled in the intended package, or in a declared substitute package where the production package is not yet available, with the substitute recorded. The test program must be running on silicon at final test, with every failing test either explained or under debug and tracked. Correlation between wafer test and final test results is tracked, so differences caused by the tester, the load board or the assembly are separated from real defects. Tested parts must be delivered for bring-up.
Work products at this gate are the packaged parts, at initial maturity and gating, and the test program, updated from the first version made before silicon. The risk addressed is bring-up being slowed or misled by untested parts: dies damaged in assembly, a test program that marks good parts as bad or bad parts as good, or a package that differs from the one later qualified without anyone recording it.
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