ITC 2003; Autotestcon 2003

International Test Conference, September 28–October 3, Charlotte, NC, www.itctestweek.org.

Advantest (www.advantest.com) formally announced its premier offering based on the Semiconductor Test Consortium's (www.semitest.org) OpenStar specification. The new T2000 employs an OpenStar mainframe and instrument modules; the goal is to enable customers to select OpenStar-compliant modules from multiple vendors. The initial modules, all from Advantest, include 250-MHz digital pin cards. . . .Taking another approach to open ATE, Teradyne (www.teradyne.com) representatives described the company's "OpenFlex initiative," under which GuideTech (www.guidetech.com) released a modular version of the GuideTech Femto 2000 multichannel time-measurement unit for use in Integra Flex systems.

DC parametric Pyramid probe cards from Cascade Microtech make contact with process-monitoring test devices located on the silicon-wafer "streets" between functional die.

NPTest (www.nptest.com ), which introduced its modular Sapphire system last summer, announced that NVidia (www.nvidia.com) has purchased multiple EXA3000 system-on-chip test systems, which NVidia will deploy in Silicon Valley and in Asia for the characterization and production test of its graphics processors and associated chip sets. . . .Teseda (www.teseda.com) announced that Sanyo Electric has purchased a Teseda V500 engineering test system. . . .Inovys (www.inovys.com) demonstrated its FlopPlot failure-diagnosis software product, which analyzes semiconductor devices based on the Inovys Ocelot test system datalog and on customers' design-for-test circuits and test patterns. . . .Cascade Microtech (www.cascademicrotech.com) announced new DC and RF fine-pitch parametric Pyramid probe cards.

Cadence Design Systems (www.cadence.com) unveiled a suite of DFT and BIST tools (see p. 48). . . .Synopsys (www.synopsys.com) announced that Toshiba taped-out a 6 million-gate, 0.13-micron digital-image-processor chip using the Synopsys DFT Compiler SoCBIST capability. . . .Mentor Graphics (www.mentor.com) highlighted speed and accuracy enhancements to its FastScan ATPG tool and said that companies including AMD, Renesas, and Ricoh have adopted Mentor's TestKompress embedded deterministic test tool. . . .LogicVision demonstrated its new LV2004 integrated family of embedded-test products for SOC design. . . . Intellitech (www.intellitech.com) demonstrated tools for both chip and PCB test: Its Nebula Silicon Debugger tool enables remote testing of prototype silicon for stuck-at and path-delay faults; its PT100 enables the simultaneous parallel test and configuration of PCBs that comply with the IEEE 1149.1 standard.

Asset Intertech (www.asset-intertech.com) introduced its ScanWorks TopCat (for TOPology and Cluster Analysis Technology), which analyzes a PCB's schematic to identify all non-boundary-scan devices that connect to boundary-scan devices. . . .Acculogic (www.acculogic.com) introduced its Cheetah boundary-scan controller, which offers TCK rates to 125 MHz. Also, the company introduced a new integrated boundary-scan test and programming environment, based on Microsoft .NET technology and the XML standard. . . .JTAG Technologies (www.jtag.com) debuted JTAG 1149.4 Explorer, an evaluation system for analog boundary-scan designs.

Autotestcon 2003, September 22–25, Anaheim, CA, www.autotestcon.com.

Aeroflex (www.aeroflex.com) and Celerity Systems (www.celeritydbt.com) featured avionics, radar, and communications test products, including the Aeroflex 3410 RF signal generator and the Celerity CS2040PNG phase-noise generator. . . .Geotest-Marvin Test Systems (www.geotestinc.com) debuted additions to its PXI product line: the GX5152 Series of PXI digital stimulus response cards (for applications such as bus emulation and automated board test), the 6U GX6062 PXI high-density RF multiplexer (which has 12 groups of 1:4 multiplexers plus differential RF switching), and the GTX2220 1.3-GHz time-interval counter (for reciprocal counting techniques). . . .Xantrex (www.xantrex.com) demonstrated its XMP 2600 programmable DC mainframe, which accommodates up to eight of 22 different power modules ranging from 160 W to 2.4 kW. . . .Teradyne (www.teradyne.com) highlighted a Spectrum 9000 configuration that was selected by the USAF's Minuteman ICBM program as the new Ground Minuteman Automatic Test System (GMATS). The company also demonstrated its new Bi420 VXI-based 1394B Firewire emulation and test instrument. . . .Winsoft (www.winsoft.com), hosted by Agilent Technologies (www.agilent.com), introduced its WinSoft Instrument System Emulator (WISE), which enables replacement of an instrument with a new instrument regardless of the programming language, manufacturer, or communications protocol.