Current Issue The International Reference for Chip-Scale Electronics, Flip-Chip Technology, Optoelectronic Interconnection and Wafer-Level Packaging January - February 2002 Email the editor

Paul M. Sakamoto Contributing Editor

As I write this, 2001-the year that changed the world when terrorists tried to rip our country apart-is about to fade into history.

That gigantic cloud of smoke, ash and bits of paper that rose like a shroud over Manhattan, and which we saw repeatedly on television, was the valuable product of some 50,000 individuals in the World Trade Center.

Legacies

We all want to leave behind legacies of our life's work. Much of theirs, both survivors and victims, has been incinerated, reduced to powder. It covered much of Manhattan and Brooklyn as a layer of crumbs, ashes and dust.

This brings into focus concerns that your test business may not be safe against the risks of a new and more terrible world.

Odds are you and your company will not be the focus of an international terrorist attack. However, if your company-like many during this down cycle-has furloughed workers, instituted pay reductions or initiated other actions affecting the workforce, you could be ripe for some level of retribution by an affected and unhappy employee.

It's time to ask yourself a few tough, but timely, questions:

• Are your test program files safe from tampering, deletion or destruction in case of arson?

• Do you have offsite backup copies and how often do you make them?

• Do you have all of the documentation for your test interface hardware at multiple locations?

• Do you have backup copies of your highest-use interfaces held in offsite storage or at your vendor?

• Are you keeping up-to-date records of where the documentation is kept?

Remember, interface lead times are often about the same as equipment lead times. Do you keep any of this updated? You should also be checking your test specification documentation. And it would be prudent to determine how many staff members are cross-trained, to provide some level of depth.

We could extend our list of questions ad nauseum, but perhaps the most important one to ask is, "If this facility were destroyed tomorrow, how would I replace it?"

The above issues are not new, of course, but I believe that most companies have become too lax about them.

If your company is keeping up with the more traditional issues I mentioned, you can think about the fact that semiconductor test must now accommodate our new world of security and counter-terrorism.

To start with, any process flow that relies on a lot of air travel steps is a bad flow. New security measures and air travel restrictions are making our lives a lot tougher. Accordingly, you must work harder than ever to eliminate air shipments that are not essential.

Reduced Employee Air Travel

Another issue that has just taken a giant leap in priority is the reduction of air travel for employees.

There are obvious reasons to reduce air travel, some of which deal with really long transit times in airport security (which-as a frequent flyer-I am not opposed to). We are facing other air-travel issues, too, including the reduction of flights by as much as 25 percent. This will make scheduling and pricing just that much worse.

If you can get a flight, it will cost a lot more. So, your test vendor is going to want viable telecommunications access to your facility and to your people.

Video conferencing, Internet-based support and remote login on your ATE systems are a few ways for test vendors to reduce both travel and response time. Although these solutions may add somewhat to ATE operating costs, along with a small reduction in security at the network firewall, the overall benefits are significant.

Disaster planning is not an enjoyable topic to discuss or to implement. But remember, terror and destruction can come from many places and in many forms.

Now go make some backups!