Alpha Sciences and iRoC Technologies join forces-
For Immediate Release – As of March 1, 2007, Alpha Sciences
Inc. of Milpitas, CA and iRoC Technologies of Grenoble, France, have begun
a technology and service partnership, providing a one-stop solution for customers
seeking radiation measurement and effects related to the semiconductor industry.
According to Mike Tucker, Managing Director at Alpha Sciences Inc. “ With
the creation of this partnership, both companies will continue to provide
their own respective services and will remain separate organizations. However,
by combining our resources, experience and geographic coverage, we can increase
our individual exposure, and provide a more complete and efficient service
to the customer.”
Tucker continues “It is a well documented
fact dating back more than 25 years that radiation induced “soft errors”,
from both celestial and terrestrial sources, are causing increasing numbers
of failures in the ever decreasing geometry of current integrated circuit
designs. As technology moves into the 65 and 45 nm levels, the amount of
radiation induced soft errors will increase exponentially, more so with the
lower operating voltages being considered.”
Alpha particles are known as the terrestrial
based or localized source of radiation, most commonly in the form of Uranium
and/or Thorium (and their progeny). Alpha Sciences provides equipment for
sale and training focused on the alpha particle detection and measurement
of all parts related to the semiconductor device, the goal being to reduce
the amount of inherent alpha emitters in the device and surrounding packaging.
In addition, Alpha Sciences provides testing services at their labs, wherein
customers can have samples tested for emission reports. “In the last year,
we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the demand for both the counting services
and equipment, indicating the alpha issue is not going to go away anytime
soon” added Tucker.
Celestial radiation in a myriad of forms bombards
the Earth constantly, with several cascading levels of particles (neutrons
and pions particularly) actually reaching the Earth surface, capable of causing
these radiation induced errors. iRoC Technologies, with a U.S. office in Santa
Clara, CA, provides a wide spectrum of testing and measurement capabilities
related to the medium and high energy particles associated with celestial
born radiation, along with alpha induced errors, in integrated circuit designs.
“At iRoC’s test division, we’ve been focusing
on bringing the best quality of service to serve Soft Error testing demand,
the large part of which being on Cosmic ray testing.” said Olivier Lauzeral,
General Manager at iRoC Technologies in Santa Clara. “We are seeing now a
growing concern in the industry about alpha particle effects. The partnership
with Alpha Sciences will complement iRoC’s alpha particle test offering with
packaging alpha emission measurement, so our customers will have the best
set of data to understand all the sources of soft error related issues in
their design.”
Radiation induced soft errors are a large
factor in the success or failure of a given product design. With pre-testing
of the device, from as early as measuring the molding compound alpha flux
rate, to the final stages of neutron beam bombardment for FIT rates at one
of the various labs, customers can determine their design susceptibility
well before the final product is released to manufacturing. Having iRoC and
Alpha Sciences working together provides the customer with this complete
service, all by simply contacting either supplier.
Please contact us at:
iRoC – 408.982.9994
Olivier Lauzeral
ojl@iroctech.com
www.iroctech.com
Alpha Sciences Inc.
info@alphacounting.com
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