Migration of PXI Instruments into Semiconductor Test Eric Starkloff National Instruments

Agenda  PXI technical overview  Emerging trends in semiconductor ATE  Application examples

PXI – CompactPCI eXtensions for Instrumentation Peripheral Slots Chassis/Backplane PXI controller OS Technology ADEs

What is PXI?  High performance bus Up to 6 GB/s system bandwidth  Integrated timing and synchronization  Standard software model  Multivendor industry standard 1500 products from >70 vendors

Industry Acceptance of PXI Number of Systems Per Year More than 1,500 PXI Products from 70 vendors Source: PXI Systems Alliance 25% CAGR forecast for 2005 – 2012 Source: World VXI & PXI Test Equipment Markets, Frost & Sullivan, April 2005

Recent Advancements in PXI  PXI has added PCI Express capability to existing PXI specifications  Technical Capabilities: Extends PXI bandwidth to 2 GB/s per slot Enhanced timing and synchronization Backwards compatible in hardware and software

Example PXI-based Testers Augmenting existing ATE: For example, PXI analog digitizers to augment digital pins in existing tester PXI measurement core: For example, sensor test system requiring mechanical stimulation and performance analog STC PTIM (Portable Test Instrument Module): Proposal being considered to make PXI the PTIM standard Working group meeting at June STC meeting

Impact of Increasing Complexity (SoC, SiP)  Lack of low level test access  Multiple technologies combined on single die  Higher software content (software defines functionality)  Result: testing methodology migrating towards system functional test

Integration from Chip to System Photo courtesy of Verigy Chip ATE System Functional Test ChipSOCSIPBoardSystem

Example FPGA-based tester for RFID Source: Konrad Technologies GMBH

Summary  PXI has achieved mainstream success in system functional test  PXI is being used today to augment ATE and for applications unserved by traditional ATE  Complex devices such as SoC and SiP require more “system-level” testing  FPGA-based capability can bridge the gap between system functional test and structural ATE

Questions?