Semiconductor Glossary - T
Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid
Ton
A test carried out on silicon wafers after processing. The characteristics of standard test structures on the wafer are measured to determine if the wafer has been processed correctly. This provides immediate feedback about possible problems before the dice on the wafer are tested.
Test(ing) and Finish(ing)
The final stages of semiconductor manufacture where parts are tested, plated, symbolized and so on. Also known as "back-end" in the industry slang.
1) Technical Application
2) Traffic Announcement Feature of the Radio Data System (RDS). Radio stations providing traffic information transmit a Traffic Program (TP) identification code all the time. When traffic announcements are broadcast the TA code is sent too. When this is received a car radio normally selects the tuner and raises the volume to a present level.
3) Travel Authorization
Tape Automated Bonding
A process utilizing metal conductors on beam tape, which are mass bonded to the IC die in a single operation.
1) Tape Analog Front-End
2) Telephone Analog Front End
1) Total Available Market
The entire accessible market for a given product (see also SAM: Served Available Market).
2) Tool Available Market
Technical Assistance Program
Travel Authorization Request
Standard ST form that must be completed and approved before an employee can travel on company business.
The source material for a sputtering process.
Thermal Analysis System
To Be Advised
Time Based Management
A comprehensive management strategy focusing on improvements through reduction of cycle-time.
Tributyltin
1) Total Carbon
2) Temperature Coefficient
1,1,1-trichioroethane
Technology Computer-Aided Design
Computer simulation of process and device.
Tetrachlorobenzene
Tetrachlorodibenzofuran
Tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin
An aromatic halogenated hydrocarbon that is one of the most toxic compounds known to man. It is produced during the synthesis of the precursor chemical used in the manufacture of trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), a herbicide. The compound is toxic to liver and kidney functions and has been shown to induce a variety of tumors in animals. Adverse effects on the immune system of mammals have also been noted. Chloracne (a specific type of acne) is the most common symptom resulting from human exposure. TCDD has been involved in a number of well-publicized environmental cases, the most famous of which is contamination of the herbicide mixture known as agent orange used as a defoliant during the Vietnam War. Also referred to dibenzo-para-dioxin. Although it is but one of a large family of dioxins, it is often simply referred to as "dioxin".
Tetrachlorodibenzofuran
A polyhalogenated hydrocarbon found as a contaminant in commercial preparations of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). This contaminant may be responsible for some of the adverse effects of PCBs. The molecule is very similar in chemical structure to tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) and is frequently referred to as dibenzodioxin. The toxicity, potency, and biological effects are very similar to those of TCDD.
1) Thomson Consumer Electronics
Old name for THOMSON Multimedia.
2) Trichloroethylene
A solvent used for cleaning parts.
Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure
Total Chemical Management
Traceability COde
Code marked on each piece produced by ST to identify the production sites, the production period and the production lot.
Taking Care Of Business
Trichloropropane
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet (Interface) Protocol
This is the standards for communications between computers adopted for the Internet.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol UA User Agent
Toxic Chemical Release Inventory
1) Toxic Dose
2) Tunnel Diode
Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf
Total Dissolved Solids
Metric Tons
In ST this work is also used to mean
manufacturing process.
Tetraethylene Glycol
Test Equipment Inventory and Investment
Pioneering toll collection system developed by Italy's Autostrade SpA. Cars pass through tollgates without stopping. A microwave radio installation on the gate communicates with a small electronic device in each vehicle, identifying the user and determining the amount to be billed. ST contributed to the development of the first system and supplied most of the components.
1) Transverse ElectroMagnetic (wave)
2) Transmission electron microscopy
Tons Equivalent Petroleum
US manufacturer of automatic test equipment widely used in ST.
Travel Expense Statement
The special hardware used to interface an automatic test machine to the product being tested. For each product type the engineering department creates a test jig and writes specific test software.
Transfer Function
Thin Ffine pitch Ball Grid Array
Height 1.2 max, pitch less than 1.0 mm.
Thin Film Detector
Thin Film Electro Luminescent
Thin Film Transistor
Glass Transition Temperature
Temperature where the expansion rate of a material increases.
Technical Grade of the Active Ingredient
Total Gross Output
Technical Grade Product
Total Gas Management
Track and Hold
Temperature Humidity Bias
A reliability test for semiconductor devices. Parts to be tested are operated in a high temperature, high humidity environment, simulating years of normal use in a few hundreds of hours.
Total Hydrocarbons
Total Harmonic Distortion
- Thermal Compression Bonding
A method of wire bonding that does not use an intermediary metal or melting, but rather the plastic flow of materials resulting from the combination of heat and pressure. Also called
thermocompression bonding.
See Diffusion
A hybrid microelectronic process where conductors, insulators and passive components are screened from special pastes onto a substrate. This process is less expensive than the thin-film process, which uses depositions and photolithography techniques to define conductors, etc.
The use of deposited films of conductive or insulating material, which may be patterned to form electronic components and conductors on a substrate, or used as insulation material between successive layers of components.
Trihalomethanes
The input voltage at which the output logic level changes state.
TetraHertz
Total Inorganic Carbon
Tungsten Inert Gas
ST Trademark for NVRAM with battery and RTC.
Temporary INstruction
Telecommunication Integrated Network Architecture
Traceability Information System
Take It Somewhere Else
Terajoule
Threshold Limit Value
Airborne concentration of a gas or particle to which most workers can be exposed on a daily basis for a working lifetime without suffering adverse effects.
Ceiling
TLV-Short Term Exposure Limit
TLV-Time Weighted Average
Transverse Magnetic (wave)
Technology Modeling
ST team working in TCAD.
Total Maximum Daily Load
Short for THOMSON Multimedia
Total Productivity Maintenance
Test Monitoring System
Trinitrotoluene
Transistor Outline
- TOC Total Organic Carbon
- TOD
Theoretical Oxygen Demand
Transistor Outline
Standard mechanical packages used primarily for discrete transistors and low pin-count ICs.
Turn On A Dime
One ST's plants in Singapore, which houses assembly and testing departments.
Table Of Contents
The pressure exerted by 1 mm of mercury. Atmospheric pressure is equal to 760mm of mercury.
Team Oriented Problem Solving
A specific methodology developed by Ford, following the Ford defined 8D (8 disciplines), to resolve problems permanently by efficiently identifying the root cause(s) and implementing preventive changes.
ST's silicon fingerprint sensor.
The total time from customer need identification to delivery; new product concept and design to cost effective production; new business identification to routine operations.
Tetradichloroxylene
Toxicology Information on Line
1) Toa Payoh
2) Test Point
3) Transport Packet
4) Traffic Program
In Radio Data System terminology, a radio program where traffic information is available.
5) Technical Product
Telecommunication and Peripherals/Automotive Groups
New name for ST's Dedicated Product Group since December 1998.
Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon
Tracks Per Inch
Total Productive Maintenance
Total productive maintenance aims at maximizing equipment effectiveness. The objective of TPM is to maximize MTBA (mean time between assists) and achieve zero unscheduled down time.
Thin Plastic Quad Flat Package
Tons Per Year
Total Quality Control
Set of methods and tools organized as an overall strategy designed to mobilize the entire manufacturing organization in order to satisfy the customer's implicit or explicit needs at the lowest cost.
Total Quality Excellence
Ford supplier qualification audit.
Thin Quad Flat Pack
Tools for Quality Improvement
Tolerated Quality Level
In a sampling plan, the level of quality that corresponds to a fairly poor acceptance probability.
Total Quality Management
TQM is a style of business management which integrates quality assurance in its core. It fosters Quality-development, Quality-maintenance and Quality-improvement efforts of all groups in an organization.
1) Tape & Reel
Technique for distribution of semiconductor devices that is particularly suitable for automatic placing machines.
2) Transient Response
An active semiconductor device with three electrodes that may be either an amplifier or a switch.
Highly original reduced instruction set microprocessor designed by Inmos.
Toxic Release Inventory
Toxic Chemical Release Inventory System
The first layer of the atmosphere, that closest to the surface of the Earth. The air surrounding the Earth consists of distinct zones, distinguished by the temperature gradient within each layer. The troposphere extends up about 16 to 18 km. in tropical regions and about 8 to 10 km in high latitudes. The air temperature in this layer decreases more or less continuously with increasing altitude. The troposphere contains about four-fifths of the mass of the atmosphere. Most of the air pollutants which get emitted at the Earth's surface are chemically broken down and/or deposited out in the troposphere.
Only few chemicals (notably the chlorofluorocarbons) are chemically stable enough to resist breakdown in the troposphere and eventually enter the layer above it, the stratosphere.
Total Reduced Sulphur
Transuranic waste
All the combinations of possible states of the inputs and outputs of a circuit. It tabulates what will happen at the output for a given input combination.
1) Time Sharing
2) Total Solids
Toxic Substances Control Act
Treatment, Storage, or Disposal
Technical Support Data Base
Treatment, Storage, or Disposal Facility
TQM Support Group
Thin Small Outline Package
A thin SOIC or SOJ package.
Total Suspended Particulate
Total Suspended Solids
Thin Small Shrink Outline Package
Total trihalomethanes
Ta Ta For Now
1) Transistor to Transitor Logic A bipolar technology where a transistor output is connected directly (rather than through a resistor or diode) to a transistor input of the next stage.
2) total
Time to Market
The instant on which a product should be ready to be sampled to a customer.
Total Toxic Organics
Time to Volume
The time between the first working silicon and volume.
The quartz tube inserted into the furnace that becomes the process chamber for diffusion and oxidation.
The time required for an output to turn on (sink current, to ground output, to go to 0 volt). It is the propagation time of an appropriate input signal to cause the output to go to 0 volt.
Same as Turn-On Time except the output stops sinking, current goes off, and/or goes to a high voltage level (logic "1").
TeleVision
Thermal Video System
Terawatts
Time-Weighted Average
Traveling Ware Tube
Transmit
