News Briefs

Pacific Power Source has added a Test Manager feature to its UPC (Universal Programmable Controller) Studio Version 1.3 graphical software tool for controlling the vendor’s line of AC power sources. UPC Studio Test Manager helps users create and run test sequences and test plans. The new release’s test-sequences feature is designed to execute a series of automated tasks that control and monitor an AC power source and other instruments. The test-plans feature allows a user to link together a series of test sequences by using prompts, user controls, Visual Basic scripts, and other techniques.

With Test Manager, the user can automate instrument compliance testing as well as obtain preconfigured test sequences and test plans from the vendor, including sequences that support avionics compliance testing in accordance with MIL-STD-704 and RTCA DO-160. Test Manager complements other features such as a waveform editor, the ability to measure and graph voltage and current harmonics to customer-specified limits, and the ability to provide control of transients within output sequences. In addition to controlling an AC power source, UPC Studio can be used to generate and view offline simulation files, enabling a user to observe steady-state waveforms and programmed transients before applying power to the equipment under test.

The basic UPC Studio is free. Activation of the Test Manager feature costs $1750, and factory-written test sequences start at $500. www.pacificpower.com.

Mentor Graphics has announced a partnership with NXP Semiconductors in which NXP will use Mentor’s design-for-test (DFT) products, including the TestKompress compressed-pattern-generation and YieldAssist failure-diagnosis tools, to improve the quality and time-to-market of NXP’s products. The agreement also provides interim support for NXP’s test tools.

Under the agreement, Mentor Graphics also obtains rights to NXP’s internally developed test tools, technology, and talent as a portion of NXP’s DFT tools-development organization joins Mentor’s design-for-test product division. This division of Mentor is also establishing a new R&D facility in Hamburg.

“We’re excited about our new business relationship with NXP. It not only brings new DFT technology to Mentor, but also brings the talent of world-class DFT developers, which will help us accelerate the development and delivery of innovative DFT technologies into the marketplace,” said Joe Sawicki, VP and GM of the design-to-silicon division at Mentor Graphics. “We expect the partnership to produce dividends for both parties and ultimately to create value that can be passed on to all Mentor DFT customers.” www.mentor.com; www.nxp.com.

Teradyne has announced that Renesas Technology has standardized on using the Teradyne J750 platform for microcontroller test at Renesas Semiconductor (Beijing). As a result of the standardization, Renesas, a joint venture of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric formed in 2003, will augment the number of J750 platforms it already uses for volume production in China and Japan. Renesas will use the additional J750 platforms to test microcontrollers used in automotive, consumer, communications, and industrial applications. www.teradyne.com; www.renesas.com.

Agilent Technologies has announced that Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) will use Agilent’s E6474A wireless network test platform for its M-Taiwan WiMAX Applications Lab (MTWAL), a WiMAX Forum applications lab. Six operators in Taiwan that won WiMAX operating licenses last year are expected to roll out their networks and provide commercial services in the second half of 2008. ITRI will use Agilent’s WiMAX test systems to support this rollout. Dr. Ching-Tarng Hsieh, engineering director of the Information and Communications Laboratories at ITRI, said that ITRI will use the E6474A to monitor quality-of-service information during the deployment of WiMAX technology. www.agilent.com; www.itri.org.tw.

Cascade Microtech has introduced the Edge system, which is designed to measure the flicker, or 1/f, noise that occurs in all semiconductors and can compromise device performance by causing jitter or phase noise in communications devices. Able to make measurements from 1 Hz to 30 MHz, the Edge flicker-noise-measurement system integrates a wafer-probe station, an Agilent Technologies 4156 semiconductor parametric analyzer, an Agilent digital signal analyzer, software, and accessories.

The Edge system provides simple access to flicker noise data over its 30-MHz bandwidth while minimizing background noise, typically keeping it less than 1.2 nV/√Hz at 100 kHz and above. In addition, it can switch between flicker and DC measurements with pushbutton automation, providing both sets of measurements over temperature in one system, eliminating risky transfer of a wafer from one measurement station to another.

Base price: $1.2 million. Cascade Microtech, www.cascademicrotech.com.

VTI Microwave, a unit of VXI Technology, now lets you use its EX7000-OEM digital I/O unit as the heart of a custom RF/microwave switch system. The EX7000-OEM contains an LXI Class A-compliant Ethernet port and a digital I/O port for driving relays. You can integrate the digital I/O unit into any of several enclosures and then build a switch matrix using your own discrete relays, connecting them to the EX7000-OEM digital I/O lines, or you can use switches from VTI Microwave. For example, you can integrate the EX7000 into an EX725 chassis and populate the chassis with cylindrical multipole microwave switches. You then control the switches with a PC connected to the module’s Ethernet port.

Before building your switch matrix, you can select parts and configure your matrix online, generating wiring lists and bills of materials. Then, you can download your configuration into the EX7000-OEM. Once the module is programmed with a configuration, its Web server sends you a graphical representation of the switch matrix and you can set switches with a browser. Because it is LXI Class A-compliant, the EX7000-OEM has IVI instrument drivers that let you control your switches under program control.

Prices: EX7000-OEM—$3500; enclosures—$3500–$4500. VTI Microwave, www.vtimicrowave.com.

Semicon West, July 14–18, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by SEMI. www.semiconwest.org.

IEEE EMC Symposium, August 18–22, Detroit, MI. Sponsored by the EMC Society of the IEEE. www.emc2008.org.

Autotestcon, September 8–11, Salt Lake City, UT. Sponsored by the IEEE. www.autotestcon.com.

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