PXI-based solutions reduce semiconductor test cost

By bringing the digital test paradigm established in the semiconductor industry to the open PXI platform used in the Semiconductor Test System (STS) and advancing it with a powerful and user-friendly pattern editor and debugger, customers can take advantage of cutting-edge PXI instrumentation to help By bringing the digital test paradigm established in the semiconductor industry to the open PXI platform used in the Semiconductor Test System (STS) and advancing it with a powerful and user-friendly pattern editor and debugger, customers can take advantage of cutting-edge PXI instrumentation to help reduce test costs and increase throughput for RF and analogue-centric ICs. 

“The PXI Digital Pattern Instrument is a critical addition to STS because it gives semiconductor engineers all the digital capability they would otherwise expect to find only in high-end digital test platforms,” said Ron Wolfe, NI vice president of semiconductor test. “With this capability in PXI on a production floor, they can meet the price points and test requirements of cutting edge devices while easily scaling to other parts of their catalogues.” 

The NI PXIe-6570 digital pattern instrument delivers the needed test capability for the ICs commonly found in the wireless device supply chain and Internet of Things devices at an economical price per pin.

It features 100 MVector per second pattern execution with independent source and capture engines and voltage/current parametric functions at up to 256 synchronised digital pins in a single subsystem. Users can take advantage of the openness of PXI and the STS to add as many or as few devices as they need to meet the device pin and site counts required in the test configuration.  

The new Digital Pattern Editor software integrates editing environments for device pin maps, specifications and patterns to develop test plans faster; built-in tools like multisite and multi-instrument pattern bursting to expand from development into production seamlessly; and tools like shmoo plots and an interactive pin view to debug and optimise tests more efficiently. 

Performing characterisation and production tests with the same PXI hardware and TestStand, LabVIEW and Digital Pattern Editor software decreases data correlation effort, which can help users decrease time to market.

The small footprint of PXI hardware, inside or outside of an STS configuration, saves space on a production floor and can run from standard wall power on a characterisation lab bench. 

“PXI has proven itself as the rare combination of hardware and software that can successfully navigate both the production floor and the characterisation lab,” continued Wolfe. “The NI digital pattern instrument and the Digital Pattern Editor represent important innovations to help device manufacturers and test houses lower the cost of test and improve test program development.”