News briefs
-- Test & Measurement World, 4/1/2009 2:00:00 AM
Synopsys Yield Explorer supports volume diagnostics analysis
Synopsys has introduced Yield Explorer, a yield-management product that expedites the discovery and mitigation of yield limiters in ICs. When compared with traditional methods, Yield Explorer can accelerate the first-silicon debug time by an order of magnitude, according to Sagar Kekare, product marketing manager at Synopsys.
A key goal, Kekare said, is to reduce the need for re-spins. He explained that as many as 40% of designs require re-spins and that 60% of re-spins result from silicon-debug issues. Yield Explorer minimizes the need for such re-spins, Kekare said, by establishing connectivity between the design, simulation, manufacturing, and test domains to identify design-process-test interactions that cause low yield. According to Kekare, the software aggregates design, simulation, test, and manufacturing data; it supports automated statistical, data-mining, and visualization functions; and it tracks daily production trends to identify complex design-process-test interactions. He added that Yield Explorer is targeted at both product and design engineers.
To help engineers uncover systematic yield limiters, the GUI of Yield Explorer is structured around a layout viewer that permits superposition of test failures on the corresponding layers of physical design. Users also benefit from the Tcl scripting environment built into the GUI; this environment can accommodate large volumes of data with customer-specific data-naming and content requirements. Its extendable data model provides a way of assimilating new types and formats of data without any loss of information or efficiency. www.synopsys.com.
Spreadtrum uses V93000 to test mobile DTV ICs
Verigy has announced that Spreadtrum Communications selected the V93000 system for production testing of its CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting) mobile digital television decoder/demodulator semiconductors. CMMB is the mobile television and multimedia standard developed and specified in China by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television.
“Being the leading demodulator IC provider in the CMMB market, which is expected to grow substantially in China over the next several years, we selected the V93000 for its high-accuracy analog-to-digital converter [ADC] test and fast integrated-circuit quiescent-current [IDDQ] measurement capabilities,” said Brian Chen, VP of operations at Spreadtrum. “The V93000 meets the accuracy and performance requirements of testing our highly integrated, high-quality CMMB demodulator and audio/video decoder designs.”
“Spreadtrum is well-positioned to take advantage of China’s fast-growing mobile TV market,” said Pascal Ronde, VP of sales, service, and support at Verigy. “The flexibility and scalability of the V93000 will make it easy for Spreadtrum to add support for future design requirements. Verigy’s large installed base of V93000s also provides the supply-chain flexibility needed to handle market fluctuations.” www.spreadtrum.com; www.verigy.com.
Keithley discontinues parametric tester line
Keithley Instruments has announced that it is discontinuing its S600 series parametric test product line. The company will accept orders for the S600 testers until February 2010 and will continue to provide technical support and repair services through February 2014. Keithley claims that sales from the S600 series products have not represented a significant portion of total revenue since mid-2007.
“Orders for our S600 series product line serving [device companies and semiconductor manufacturing foundries] have been declining now for many quarters. Based on these facts and because we do not expect to be able to achieve results from this product line that are consistent with our business model, we have made the extremely difficult decision to discontinue the product line,” said Joseph P. Keithley, the company’s chairman, in a prepared statement. www.keithley.com.
Test your wireless devices
ETS-Lindgren’s Model 5247 RF shielded enclosure lets you measure transmitter power and receiver sensitivity on wireless devices at frequencies from 700 MHz to 6 GHz. You can use the chamber for precertification and production testing of cellphones, WiMAX devices, WiFi devices, Bluetooth devices, and others. The anechoic absorbers let you test your device indoors as they prevent reflected signals from interfering with wanted signals.
The low end of the Model 5247’s frequency range will let you test devices in the 700-MHz band once reserved for UHF TV. The chamber provides more than 80 dB of RF isolation from outside interference.
To get signals into and out of the enclosure, you can use the bulkhead feed-through connector panel that includes one SMA connector, three type N connectors, one filtered DB25 connector, a six-line fiber-optic feed-through, and a ground stud. You can also use an optional USB fiber-optic media converter with a two-port hub. The enclosure includes a quick-change antenna mounting panel and a premounted antenna for receiving transmitted signals from your device. The antenna also lets you produce test signals for measuring receiver performance.
Price: $18,500. ETS-Lindgren, www.ets-lindgren.com.
High-speed cards added to PXI digitizer line
ADLink has added three high-speed digitizer cards to its PXI product line. The four-channel PXI-9816, PXI-9826, and PXI-9846 sample at 10 Msamples/s, 20 Msamples/s, and 40 Msamples/s, respectively, all with 16-bit resolution. Channel bandwidth is 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz, depending on model. Each card can store up to 256 Msamples in its 512 Mbytes of data storage, shared among the four channels, and each channel has its own ADC, so you can simultaneously sample on all channels.
You can trigger an acquisition based on software, on a trigger pulse through the card’s front-panel connector, on an analog trigger level (rising or falling) from any channel, from a PXI star trigger, or from the PXI trigger bus. Trigger modes include pretrigger, post-trigger, middle trigger, or delayed trigger. For timing, you can use the card’s internal oscillator or you can supply your own clock signal. Software support includes drivers for Microsoft C++, Visual Basic, and National Instruments’ LabView.
Base price: $1699. ADLink Technology, www.adlinktech.com/digitizers.
Calendar
ESTECH, May 4–7, Schaumburg, IL. Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology. www.iest.org/estech/estech.htm.
International Microwave Symposium, June 7–12, Boston, MA. IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. www.ims2009.org.
Semicon West, July 14–16, San Francisco, CA. SEMI. www.semiconwest.org.
To learn about other conferences, courses, and calls for papers, visit www.tmworld.com/events.
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