-- Test & Measurement World, 12/6/2007 4:49:00 AM
Credence Systems at Semicon Japan introduced the MultiWave mixed-signal instrument for multisite testing of highly integrated system-in-package (SIP) and system-on-chip (SOC) devices used in mainstream consumer applications. The MultiWave instrument integrates the functionality of multiple instruments in one multichannel arbitrary waveform generator and digitizer unit, allowing for fully parallel and concurrent testing of audio and video SIP and SOC components. Especially effective in high-mix product environments because of its plug-and-play configurability, the MultiWave instrument has already been adopted in high volume manufacturing by leading semiconductor manufacturers in the consumer electronics market as well as outsourced assembly and test (OSAT) providers and characterization labs.
"One of our principles to improving test economics is to ensure that the test system is not adding overhead cost," stated Amir Aghdaei, senior VP of field operations and marketing at Credence. "In addition to required performance, plug-and-play configurability, operational efficiency, and acquisition cost of the test system are very important considerations for our customers in the price-sensitive mainstream consumer electronics market. These considerations become even more important as more and more device manufacturers form partnerships with OSATs for wafer sort and final test. In a high-mix product environment, for example, fast automatic calibration, diagnostics, and configurability can provide a huge advantage in accelerating the ramp to high volume production to meet time-to-market goals. Now, with the addition of the MultiWave instrument, the Diamond test platform offers customers the optimum test platform to realize the advantages of faster time-to-market in a very cost-effective and efficient manner."
"Our number one priority is to ramp to volume production and meet our time-to-market goals as rapidly and cost-effectively as we can," stated Patrick Sauvage, managing director of the SPACE/ULC product line, ASIC Business Management, at Atmel Rousset, France. "The complex ASICs that we manufacture today have a very high level of analog/mixed-signal content. By rapidly integrating several MultiWave instruments in our Diamond engineering and production platforms, we have been able to accelerate our wafer sort and final production test, including correlation and validation with our OSAT partners, with highly parallel operations and maximum flexibility. We achieved final test production of one of our key mixed-signal ASICs, and produced over one million devices, in a few weeks."
The MultiWave instrument's fully parallel multichannel architecture delivers very efficient parallel test capability. Tailored for multisite testing—with parallel signal generation and sampling of analog signals—the instrument's four independent wide-range generator channels and four independent digitizer channels allow for concurrent testing of video and audio components, fully synchronized to the digital components. These channels are designed to generate AC or DC signals in a wide frequency range from high precision audio to high speed video applications. Each digitizer or generator path can easily be software-configured as a high-precision or high-frequency signal path on demand. Sampling rates range from 0 to 250 megasamples per second (Msample/s) with resolutions from 16-bit for video and up to 24-bit for high precision audio tests.
www.credence.com
