1. Purpose of the gate
Production release is the point from which the company promises customers that every part it ships will meet the datasheet, will last as long as the qualification says and will be supported if it does not. For a fabless startup this is also when the company first takes on the obligations of a supplier: production agreements with its foundry, assembly and test suppliers, a quality system with change notification and returns handling, and a datasheet that customers will design to.
The review takes the engineering verdict from Qualification passed, held just before it, and checks that the product has passed the stress tests in its qualification plan to the chosen standard, that the test program is released and correlated across the testers and sites used, that the supply chain is under production agreements, that the quality system works, and that the datasheet, firmware and software are released. It also freezes the production supply model: whether the company contracts directly with the foundry and its assembly and test suppliers, or relies on a turnkey supply partner.
The gate criteria are a qualification report showing the stress tests in the qualification plan passed to the chosen standard such as JEDEC or AEC-Q100, a test program released and correlated across testers and sites used, production supplier agreements signed with foundry, assembly and test suppliers, a quality system in place with change notification and returns handling, and a datasheet released with characterised limits.
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