Today, with complex digital circuits designed using memory, microprocessors and ASICs, the process is more confusing. Since time-to-market is critical, it's important to have a way of obtaining and standardizing bare-die information.

The Good-Die Network was formed to answer that need. A worldwide survey determined that no two manufacturers could supply all the necessary information. For instance, requirements such as a die picture, pad sizes, and coordinate and functional range might be missing. Only one supplier could provide 90 percent of the information, and many could supply less than half what was needed. Often the information was out of date, so that when the die was delivered, a component shrink had taken place and the module had to be redesigned.

The only standards available for the procurement of semiconductor dice were the EIA/JESD49 and the Die Information Exchange Format. The former was a checklist of information needed to carry out the design and procurement process, and the latter was a cumbersome prescriptive electronic method for mere data exchange. The Good-Die Network created a user-friendly standard under the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (Cenelec) that could then be offered to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The standard, ES59008 Data Requirements for Semiconductor Die, has been divided into six parts covering general requirements; vocabulary; mechanical, material and connectivity; test and quality; handling and storage; and thermal and electrical simulation. It also includes particular requirements for bare dice, bare dice with added connection structures, minimally packaged dice and an electronic data exchange format-the Device Data Exchange-and data dictionary.

The Cenelec standard has been offered to TC47 of the IEC and to a project team composed of members from the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. The project team is working to streamline the Cenelec document in an effort to make it fully acceptable.

The new international standard, which should be available before the end of 2003, is being produced with the cooperation of semiconductor manufacturers, whose objective is to make the use of bare dice easy for engineers so that no problems occur in the total system design of electronic modules in the future.

Mike Roughton is Project Manager of the Good-die Network and a Microelectronics Assembly consultant based in Solihull, England.