Automatic test equipment
Semiconductor ATE, named for testing semiconductor devices, can test a wide range of electronic devices and systems, from simple components (resistors, capacitors, and inductors) to integrated circuits (ICs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), and complex, completely assembled electronic systems.
ATE systems are designed to reduce the amount of test time needed to verify that a particular device works or to quickly find its faults before the part has a chance to be used in a final consumer product.
The semiconductor ATE architecture consists of master controller (usually a computer) that synchronizes one or more source and capture instruments (listed below).
The Device Under Test (DUT) is physically connected to the ATE by another robotic machine called a handler or prober and through a customized Interface Test Adapter (ITA) or "fixture" that adapts the ATE's resources to the DUT.
The industrial PC is a normal desktop computer packaged in 19-inch rack standards with sufficient PCI / PCIe slots for accommodating the Signal stimulator/sensing cards.
Most modern semiconductor ATEs include multiple computer-controlled instruments to source or measure a wide range of parameters.
Packaged parts use a handler to place the device on a customized interface board, whereas silicon wafers are tested directly with high precision probes.
One method to help reduce these ambiguity groups is the addition of analog signature analysis testing to the ATE system.
These systems are widely employed for incoming inspection, quality assurance, and production testing of electronic devices and subassemblies.
Industry-standard communication interfaces link signal sources with measurement instruments in "rack-and-stack" or chassis-/mainframe-based systems, often under the control of a custom software application running on an external PC.
GPIB works best for applications in industrial settings that require a rugged connection for instrument control.
The original GPIB standard was developed in the late 1960s by Hewlett-Packard to connect and control the programmable instruments the company manufactured.
The IEEE-488 bus has long been popular because it is simple to use and takes advantage of a large selection of programmable instruments and stimuli.
Script-based instruments provide architectural flexibility, improved performance, and lower cost for many applications.
[5] The VXI bus architecture is an open standard platform for automated test based on the VMEbus.
Introduced in 1987, VXI uses all Eurocard form factors and adds trigger lines, a local bus, and other functions suited for measurement applications.
Introduced in 1997, PXI uses the CompactPCI 3U and 6U form factors and adds trigger lines, a local bus, and other functions suited for measurement applications.
However, it is not widely used in building industrial test and measurement systems for a number of reasons; for example, USB cables are not industrial grade, are noise sensitive, can accidentally become detached, and the maximum distance between the controller and the device is 30 m. Like RS-232, USB is useful for applications in a laboratory setting that do not require a rugged bus connection.
RS-232 is a specification for serial communication that is popular in analytical and scientific instruments, as well for controlling peripherals such as printers.
With very little network overhead and a 100 Mbit/sec data rate, it is significantly faster than GPIB and 100BaseT Ethernet in real applications.
A system configured on this type of platform can stand alone as a complete measurement and automation solution, with the master unit controlling sourcing, measuring, pass/fail decisions, test sequence flow control, binning, and the component handler or prober.
Support for dedicated trigger lines means that synchronous operations between multiple instruments equipped with onboard Test Script Processors that are linked by this high speed bus can be achieved without the need for additional trigger connections.
