Principal ATE test development engineer, on demand.
Fifteen years releasing silicon to high-volume production for tier-1 semiconductor companies. Teradyne-native, fluent across the other major platforms. Test programs, DIB hardware, characterisation and yield work — first-silicon bring-up through to OSAT transfer.
Everything between first silicon and a released production program.
Engaged solo or embedded in your test team. I take the scope you don't have headcount for and hand it back documented, correlated and running.
Test program development
Production-grade programs on Teradyne IG-XL/VBT and other platforms — written, debugged, correlated and documented for handover.
Silicon bring-up & debug
First-silicon on the tester: pattern debug, datalog triage, and the failure-analysis loop back to design.
DIB & loadboard hardware
Loadboard, DIB and probe-card specification and review — signal integrity, power delivery, socket and contact strategy.
Characterisation & validation
Shmoo, corner and temperature characterisation; datasheet correlation and limit setting backed by real distributions.
Mixed-signal, RF & power
ADC/DAC, PLL, SerDes, RF front-end and high-current power test methods — the measurements that are hard to get right.
Yield & cost of test
Test-time reduction, multisite scaling, insertion merge and limit rationalisation. Coverage held, cost per die down.
Production release & OSAT transfer
Release packages, gauge studies, tester-to-tester correlation and a clean transfer into your subcon's flow.
Consulting & training
Test strategy reviews, DFT feedback, methodology audits, and hands-on upskilling for in-house test teams.
Teradyne-native. Fluent everywhere else.
The deep experience is the Teradyne ecosystem — IG-XL and the VBT toolchain — where I've written, debugged and released production programs end to end. I've also worked across the other major testers, so a platform port or a second-source evaluation isn't new ground.
Increasingly the work is software as much as test: Python and VB.NET tooling around the program, STDF and datalog pipelines, automated correlation reports, and analysis that turns lot data into limit decisions instead of spreadsheets nobody opens.
A short scoping call, then work you can measure.
Scoping call
Device, tester, insertion, timeline and what 'done' means. Thirty minutes, no charge, NDA first if you need one.
Written scope & quote
Deliverables, assumptions, dependencies on your side, and a fixed day rate or fixed-price package.
Execution
Working in your revision control and release process, with a short weekly status you can forward to management.
Handover
Documented program, correlation data and a walkthrough with your team. No dependency on me afterwards.
I also build ATE·IQ — an AI development platform for ATE engineers.
ATE·IQ covers both halves of the job: test program software and load-board design. It runs as a task pane inside your IG-XL workbook and as a standalone desktop IDE — same application, one Windows installer, everything bound to localhost. Your code, workbooks and lot data never leave the machine.
Generated work is never taken on trust: every result goes through machine checks — VBA rules, cross-sheet validation, DRC and topology, a behavioural device model — and a bounded repair loop before a human sees it. What can only be proven by the real tools is labelled as such.
One engineer, fifteen years, no handover risk.
D.W. Semiconductor Test Ltd is a solo consultancy founded in Dublin in 2021. Daniel W. has spent fifteen years in ATE test development for tier-1 semiconductor companies — mixed-signal, RF and power devices, from characterisation through to high-volume production release.
You get the engineer who scoped the work doing the work. No account layer, no junior substitution, no ramp-up billed back to you. Programs are delivered documented and correlated so your team owns them after I leave.
Remote by default from Dublin, onsite worldwide for bring-up, debug and production transfer. Comfortable under NDA and inside your existing revision control and release process.
Have a device to release, or a program that's over test time?
Send the device type, tester and timeline. You'll get a straight answer on scope and availability — not a proposal deck.