Flash offers test and programming choices

Flash memory is hot. The Semiconductor Industry Association (www.semichips.org) expects the flash market to grow 25%, to $12.1 billion, in 2004, in contrast to a 16.8% rate for the semiconductor industry as a whole.

Credence Systems (www.credence.com) cites such figures as impetus for its recent introduction of the Personal Kalos 2, which supports effective data rates to 400 MHz to speed up test. Other tester companies are similarly targeting NVMs, with Agilent Technologies (www.agilent.com) having introduced a version of its Versatest system that can test 32 NAND or 64 serial flash devices in parallel.

The RoadRunner programs flash devices as they're fed to a pick-and-place machine. Courtesy of Data I/O.

Consequently, various schemes have emerged to move device programming toward the end of the end-product manufacturing process. In-line programmers such as the RoadRunner from Data I/O (www.data-io.com) program devices as they're fed to a pick-and-place machine. The IEEE 1532 standard enables programming even later, allowing in-system programming via a boundary-scan port of flash devices soldered to a board.

No scheme is a panacea, however. In-line programming can make production vulnerable to inline-programmer failures, and William White, president of BP Microsystems (www.bpmicro.com) points out that in-system programming can be a time-consuming task for an expensive in-circuit tester. Two seconds of programming on an Agilent 3070 might be tolerable, he says, but 30 s probably wouldn't be. His company makes off-line programmers that buffer programming from production. Often, he says, product manufacturers will contract with a dedicated programming center or distributor to deliver programmed parts a day or so in advance of when they're needed.

Off-line programming will maintain its key role, but other approaches will make inroads. Intellitech (www.intellitech.com), for example, has introduced its PT100 tester (see p.47), which president C.J. Clark says will increase throughput for in-system programming. As competing techniques emerge, successful product engineers will need to juggle various methods, perhaps employing off-line programmers to load large operating systems while using testers to top off flash devices with product differentiators such as vendor logos and custom ring tones.

Rick Nelson, Executive Editor, rnelson@tmworld.com