Test Time And Cost Calculator

Work out test time and cost instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Test Time And Cost Calculator

Test cost per die is ATE hourly rate divided by throughput, where throughput comes from test plus index time divided by the number of parallel sites. Multi-site testing is the main lever: going from 1 to 8 sites cuts cost per die by nearly eight.

Formula

Test cost

effective time = (test + index) / sites; cost per die = ATE rate / (3600 / effective time)

Worked example

With the default values below, Test Time And Cost Calculator returns Test cost per die of $0.01375. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Test time per die: 1.8 s
ATE cost per hour: 180
Parallel test sites: 8 sites
Handler index time: 0.4 s

Results

Test cost per die: $0.01375
Effective time per die: 0.28 s
Die per hour: 13,091 die/h
Site utilisation: 81.82% %

Step by step

1Values used
2Test cost
3Test cost per die= 0.01375
4Effective time per die= 0.28 s
5Die per hour= 13,091 die/h
6Site utilisation= 81.82 %

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 5 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does index time matter?

On short tests it can dominate. A 0.4 s index on a 0.5 s test wastes 44% of the tester, so handler speed becomes the constraint.

What limits parallel sites?

Tester resources — channels, power supplies, digital instruments — and handler capability. Analogue and RF tests parallelise far less easily than digital scan.