A large number of today's electronic devices are driven by a seamless combination of analog and digital technology. At the heart of these devices are complex mixed-signal ASICs. The development cycle of these ASICs consist of iterations of designing, prototyping and testing; with a lot of importance placed on testing due to the absolute necessity of getting the design completely right before sending it out for very expensive fabrication.
The process of characterizing a new ASIC can be tedious and time consuming. When "first silicon"- the first sample parts of a new chip design; is to be tested, a dedicated test application is typically not suitable. Traditional automated test equipment (ATEs), which are designed to test ASICs at high-volume manufacturing throughput rates, cost millions of dollars. General-purpose test equipment is usually used and instruments are configured manually to collect accurate measurements of key device parameters and understand how the new device operates. Measurements are usually made at different operating conditions such as temperature, input voltage, frequency and so on. Add to this the need to test multiple parts for statistical sampling and design and test engineers end up with a huge task in their hands.
This opens up a need for a small, low-cost, mixed signal ASIC tester that can support an ASIC through its development cycle. Cal-Bay can supply this on a custom, turnkey basis.
Instrumentation
The ASIC test system incorporates NI Modular Instruments which is based on Synchronization and Memory Core – a modern architecture for mixed-signal test.
The instruments that are part of the test suite are:
• High-resolution scope
• Arbitrary waveform generator
• Digital waveform generator and analyzer
These instruments can be mixed and matched based on specific customer requirements.
The test instrumentation is based on the PXI platform. PXI is an open, modular, industry standard platform for test, measurement and control. The instruments can be plugged into a PXI chassis; which ensures easy flexibility and scalability of the test system with the ability to accommodate different channel types or number of channels. |
