News Briefs

Agilent Technologies' Measurement Systems Division has extended the capabilities of its vectorless printed-circuit-board test technology with the release of Medalist iVTEP (intelligent Vectorless Test Extended Performance) software. The new iVTEP builds on vectorless test capabilities of the company's earlier VTEP and original TestJet technologies, which rely on package capacitance and tend to rely on the presence of substantial lead-frame metal.

N K Chari, Agilent in-circuit test marketing manager, explained that iVTEP targets micro-BGAs, flip chips, and other ultrasmall devices with minimal or no lead frames—all of which can exhibit insufficient capacitance to permit traditional vectorless approaches to work. Similarly, said Chris Jacobsen, Agilent R&D manager and technical marketing engineer, iVTEP targets devices whose attached heat spreaders introduce series capacitance, further limiting the effective capacitance available for traditional vectorless tests.

Jacobsen said that TestJet works above about 20 fF, VTEP works down to 5 fF (accommodating 1.27-mm-pitch BGAs), and iVTEP works well below 1 fF (accommodating 0.8-mm-pitch solder-ball packages). In an effort to protect Agilent's IP, Jacobsen would not say exactly what iVTEP measures—only that the measurement is less reliant on capacitance than were VTEP measurements. He did note that iVTEP is a software upgrade that works with any Agilent 3070PC or Medalist i5000 system equipped with a VTEP-compatible fixture. www.agilent.com/see/ICT.

During The Vision Show East (see p. 15), the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) announced that components of the new GenICam (GENeric programming Interface for CAMeras) standard are slated to be released in mid-June. Dr. Friedrich Dierks of Basler, who serves as secretary of the EMVA's GenICam standard group, announced that the GenApi applications programming interface will be released at a GenICam standard group meeting scheduled for June 12–15 in Montreal. At the same time, he said, the GenTL transport-layer protocol (for grabbing an image) will be issued in draft form.

The goal of GenICam is to provide a generic programming interface for all types of cameras, including ones employing GigE Vision, Camera Link, and IEEE 1394 interfaces. GenICam will specify a standard XML camera-description format that will make it easier for vendors of image-processing libraries to support diverse camera models.

From a customer viewpoint, Dierks said, GenICam will provide a standard user interface for configuring a camera, grabbing images, delivering events, and transferring image data. To comply with GenICam, camera vendors, he said, will provide a camera-description XML file that describes how camera functions map to specific camera registers or commands. Initially, seven of the 180 defined features are mandatory.

Dierks noted that the just-released GigE Vision standard mandates that GigE Vision cameras come with GenICam-compliant files. Work is underway, he said, on requirements for IEEE 1394 cameras.

Dierks also noted that GenICam source code will be available to members of the GenICam group; runtime binaries sufficient for creating camera-description files will be available to others. The GenICam group has 10 members eligible to vote on the standard as well as 12 associate members. www.genicam.org.

JEDEC and International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) have published two documents that should help manufacturers reduce the risk of tin whiskers in lead-free products. The first, JEDEC standard JESD201, "Environmental Acceptance Requirements for Tin Whisker Susceptibility of Tin and Tin Alloy Surface Finishes," provides an environmental acceptance testing and reporting method for tin whisker susceptibility of tin and tin alloy surface finishes. The second document is a JEDEC/IPC joint publication, JP002, "Current Tin Whiskers Theory and Mitigation Practices Guideline." It describes theories about whisker formation and explains practices used to minimize whiskers. The documents can be downloaded from the JEDEC Web site. www.jedec.org.

LeCroy's SDA 18000 serial data analyzer boasts a bandwidth of 18 GHz, and the company claims that it achieves the bandwidth without software enhancements. LeCroy also takes the single-channel sample rate lead at 60 Gsamples/s with this instrument. Waveform memory can reach 150 Msamples with a memory option.

To achieve the 18-GHz bandwidth, LeCroy uses a digital bandwidth interleave technique, which is based on RF heterodyne. The scope converts the incoming signal into two 6-GHz frequency bands for the 0–11 GHz range and one 8-GHz band for the 11 GHz to 18 GHz frequencies before digitizing the signal.

The SDA 18000 comes with LeCroy's Advanced Serial Data Analysis and Jitter software package (ASDA-J). Several options enhance the instruments for specific serial buses, including Serial ATA (SATA), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Fully Buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM), and PCI Express. LeCroy also offers a decoder package for 8b/10b encoded data streams. With this package, you select your data stream, and the SDA decodes the data and displays it with bus-specific commands.

Base price: $128,000. LeCroy has also introduced the 9-GHz SDA 9000, with prices starting at $90,000. LeCroy, www.lecroy.com.

The Supplier Quality Insight application provides OEMs with the means to better manage and track the quality of suppliers' components. It's designed to foster a collaborative effort between suppliers and customers to ensure that suppliers meet target performance goals based on test data.

For companies employing Supplier Quality Insight, such data can be collected directly from suppliers' test equipment, pulled from data files, or loaded by suppliers into Web forms. An OEM customer can define a template indicating specification requirements. The data can span multiple real-time and historical data sources and encompass an entire extended supply chain, and it can also be integrated with data from design, ERP/MRP (enterprise resource planning/materials requirements planning), MES (manufacturing execution systems), and CRM (customer relationship management) applications.

The Supplier Quality Insight application can be accessed with any Web browser; it uses Internet standards such as SML (semantic markup language) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). It can also be deployed across multiple sites with differing computing infrastructures. The software is available for direct license or as a SigmaQuest Web-hosted software service. It's available as a stand-alone offering or as part of the SigmaSure product suite.

Base price: $35,000. SigmaQuest, www.sigmaquest.com.

Semicon West, July 10–14, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by SEMI. www.semi.org.

Design Automation Conference (DAC), July 24–28, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by IEEE, SIGDA, EDA Consortium. www.dac.com.

EMC Symposium, August 14–18, Portland, OR. Sponsored by IEEE, EMC Society. www.emc2006.org.

To learn about other conferences, courses, and calls for papers, visit www.tmworld.com/events.