DeFacTo is an innovative chip design software company developing breakthrough technology to dramatically enhance the DFT process and increase the testability of integrated circuits (ICs) and systems on a chip (SoCs). The development of DeFacTo's technology was begun at the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble (INPG-France) in 1997, under the leadership of Chouki Aktouf, PhD. More than 18 man-years of work were applied to the unique technology for moving DFT from a post-synthesis process to pre-synthesis. Dr. Aktouf and his team did the early market assessment and established proof of concept by working with a large European semiconductor manufacturer to validate the benefits of the company's technology.

Dr. Aktouf, Michel Oger, Philippe Duchene, and James Girand founded DeFacTo in August 2003 and the company raised Series A financing in 2004 and 2005. Mr.Oger and Dr. Duchene were founders of Snaketech Corporation, a substrate analysis company acquired by Simplex Solution, Inc. (later acquired by Cadence Design Systems, Inc.); and Mr.Girand has broad executive sales and marketing experience with worldwide electronics companies.

Design for Test: The market and its challenges
The semiconductor industry is reaching a breaking point. Right now, testing accounts for more than 70% of total manufacturing cost, according to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). To face this challenge, semiconductor companies require an increasing amount of DFT for SoCs.