News Briefs

System-level boundary-scan applications have gotten a boost in the form of National Semiconductor's (Santa Clara, CA) System Test Access (STA) evaluation kit, which provides IEEE 1149.1 support for multi-card backplane environments. With the customizable STA, designers can generate and analyze test architectures without creating dedicated hardware.

Each $1500 kit contains a backplane; multi-drop, pass-through, and Serdes daughtercards; a universal power supply; and two CAT5 patch cords. The kit comes with pregenerated SVF (Serial Vector Format) files for three sample configurations; it also comes with netlists and schematics for users who prefer to generate test-vector files for their own hardware.

The kit supports both the IEEE 1149.4 analog extensions to boundary scan as well as the IEEE 1532 standard for in-system programming. Custom daughter cards with FPGAs or Flash memory devices can enable users to evaluate in-system FPGA configuration and Flash programming. www.national.com.

In July, Credence Systems, Agilent Technologies, and Teradyne all announced major order wins that offer signs of hope to the electronics test industry. Credence Systems (Fremont, CA; www.credence.com) announced that Amkor Technology, a contractor of semiconductor assembly and test services, has issued a purchase order for multiple ASL 3000RF test systems to be delivered over the next six months. Amkor will use the systems for engineering development tasks and for volume manufacturing of wireless chipsets.

On July 15, Agilent (Palo Alto, CA; www.agilent.com) announced that ASE Group (Taiwan) had purchased 25 of Agilent's 93000 system-on-chip (SOC) test systems, which can cost several million dollars each. ASE Group, a provider of semiconductor testing services, will use the systems to test ICs used in wireless, communication, digital consumer, and computational applications.

Earlier in the month, Teradyne (Boston, MA; www.teradyne.com) announced that ASE Test Limited, part of ASE Group, has also purchased multiple Tiger and Catalyst SOC testers. In addition, Teradyne reported that ASAT (a Hong Kong-based provider of semiconductor assembly, test, and package design services) has ordered multiple Catalyst testers for high-volume production of multimedia and wireless devices.

Electroglas (San Jose, CA) has sold its Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Fab Solutions software product lines to FEI (Hillsboro, OR) for $6 million in cash plus the assumption of certain liabilities. The product lines, including Electroglas's Yield Manager and Merlin's Framework products, will form the foundation of a new FEI division that will be staffed, in part, by current Electroglas DFM and Fab Solutions employees. www.feicompany.com.

To help the US Army, Navy, and Air Force test the thousands of miles of optical fibers they use on ships, planes, and land-based installations, ILX Lightwave (Bozeman, MT) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) devised a system that can perform optical measurements at the push of a button. The system, which combines a NIST-designed optical detector with an ILX Lightwave optical multimeter, measures light emitted from a fiber over various wavelengths. It will be used to perform annual checks on the accuracy of optical fiber power systems.

The optical detector is available in two versions; one uses silicon-based sensors and the other uses germanium-based sensors. The sensors connect to an optical fiber without the need for additional optics and with barely measurable light loss. NIST claims that measurement uncertainty is half that of previous optical fiber power detectors. www.nist.gov.

Precise Time and Frequency has commenced operations at a facility in Peabody, MA. The new company produces rubidium standards, quartz standards, GPS receivers, distribution amplifiers, network time servers, and other time and frequency instrumentation. www.ptfinc.com.

EDA revenues: The EDA Consortium's Market Statistics Service (MSS) has announced that electronic design automation (EDA) industry revenues for Q1 2003 were $908 million, 6% less than the $962 million in Q1 2002 but a sequential improvement on the recent Q4 year over year, which showed a 13% decline. Japan was the top performer with 37% growth at $235 million vs. $172 million a year ago. www.edac.org.

Optical MEMS forecast: High-tech market-research firm In-Stat/MDR (Scottsdale, AZ) reports that optical MEMS are finding uses in technologies other than telecom applications. The company forecasts that sales of optical MEMS, into segments other than telecommunications, will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.8% over the next five years. www.instat.com.

Semiconductor market: Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) reports that North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $720 million in orders in June 2003 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.93. SEMI also says that the bookings level stabilized, and that higher chip production capacity levels and higher average chip pricing lend credence to the sentiment that the equipment market will begin recovery in the second half of the year. www.semi.org.

National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC), September 7–11, Orlando. Sponsored by Telcordia Technologies. 973-829-4832; www.nfoec.com .

International KGD Packaging and Test Workshop, September 8–10, Napa Valley, CA. Sponsored by Die Products Consortium (DPC). www.napakgd.com .

EOS/ESD Symposium, September 21–25, Las Vegas. Sponsored by ESD Association. 315-339-6937; www.esda.org .

Autotestcon, September 22–25, Anaheim, CA. Sponsored by IEEE. www.autotestcon.com .

International Test Conference, September 30–October 2, Charlotte, NC. Sponsored by the IEEE. 202-973-8665; www.itctestweek.org .

Sensors Expo Fall, October 6-9, Anaheim, CA. Sponsored by Advanstar Communications. 800-331-5706; www.sensorsexpo.com.

International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA), November 2–6, Santa Clara, CA. Sponsored by Electronic Device Failure Analysis Society. 440-338-5151; www.edfas.org .

Productronica, November 11–14, Munich, Germany. Sponsored by Messe Muenchen. www.productronica.de .

International High-Level Design Validation and Test Workshop, November 12–14, San Francisco. Sponsored by IEEE. +33-467-418-523; www.hldvt.com/03 .

To see our complete calendar, visit www.tmworld.com/events .