Doubling Tekmos Test Capability

Tekmos has just doubled our test capacity, and this is the story behind it. Once you have chosen a brand of testers, there are strong incentives to keep on using that brand. The first is the cost of test hardware. Each part has a dedicated load board. While each hardware set is on the order of a thousand dollars, we do a lot of chips and over time we have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in test hardware that is dedicated to a specific tester. Another incentive is the software associated with the test programs. We have man-years of engineering time invested in the test programs which would be lost with a new tester brand.

That is why we were excited to learn that a major semiconductor foundry was closing their test facility, and selling six of the same brand of tester that we use. Used testers sell at a steep discount, and we got a good purchase price.

The main issue was that the testers were in China, and it was our responsibility to get them back to Texas. 

The first step was to hire a Chinese packing company. Each tester and each manipulator was put in a hermetic bag, and then packed in a custom shipping crate. Then, all 12 crates were packed in a 40 foot shipping container. We then made arrangements to have the container shipped from Shanghai to Houston.

We knew the name of the ship, and as a result, were able to track it's movements across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal, and on to Houston. The tracking detail was accurate enough that we could see it wait as the locks filled on the canal.

Eventually, the container arrived at our warehouse, and we were able to inspect what we have bought. There is always a risk in buying things from overseas, because you only get to look at photographs of the merchandise, and there is never enough detail. This time, we were lucky, and are quite pleased with what we bought.

Six testers are more than we need, so we are going to use the pin electronics from two of the testers to increase the pin capability of some of our existing testers. Testers are basically a collection of pin electronics, and you buy the number of pins that you need for your parts. Our product mix has swung to more high pin-count parts, and so it makes sense for us to boost the our tester pin-count that have additional testers on the floor.