Jul 8 2013
Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation has entered the market for testing system-on-chip (SoC) mobile power-management ICs (PMIC) by delivering the semiconductor industry's most cost-compelling solution using the V93000 platform.
Compatible with Advantest's large global installed base of V93000 systems, the new solution has the flexibility to perform massive multi-site testing of complex SoC devices and single in-line packages (SiP) with embedded power-management cores.
Test systems for mobile PMIC devices are required to conduct a very high volume of complex tests including as many as 2,000 tests for characterization, 500 tests at design verification and another 300 tests during production. These testers also must have the versatility to address SoC integration trends, in which high-end digital circuits are combined with analog and power-management functions on a single chip.
Advantest's new V93000 Mobile PMIC solution features a scalable, low-cost infrastructure that uses high-density modules for massive parallel tests. To provide maximum flexibility and the most economical solution, the tester features the new high-density device power supply DPS128 with 128 channels of voltage/current (VI) resources per module to accurately source and measure both current and voltage. The solution also leverages the universal pin architecture of Advantest's Pin Scale 1600 digital module. The instrument combines high-speed digital performance with precision DC source and measurement capabilities, making it an ideal fit for mobile PMIC testing. The per-pin time measurement unit (TMU) enables efficient measurement of high switching frequencies, duty cycles and fast rise/fall times found in today's advanced power-management devices. The configuration is flexible and expandable to meet future testing needs.
Advantest's high-density test solution is designed to handle the latest innovations being used in portable consumer devices to extend battery lifetimes including multi-supply voltages (MSV), which reduce power consumption by providing several domains to separate power distribution, and power-supply shut off (PSO), used to conserve individual power blocks when in standby mode.
"Our new V93000 Mobile PMIC solution offers our customers superior performance, economical cost of test and faster time to market," said Hans-Juergen Wagner, senior vice president, SoC Business Group at Advantest Corporation. "With innovations in PMICs creating more complex devices, we expect the V93000 to become a standard solution for PMIC test."
Advantest's V93000 Mobile PMIC solution is scheduled to begin shipping this year.