PXI semiconductor test
At present, with the rapid development of semiconductor industry, semiconductor test system has a wide range of market applications and considerable prospects. In the medical industry, military industry, aerospace industry, automotive electronics industry, memory industry and traditional instrument suppliers, there is a demand for semiconductor test systems. These industries are mainly concerned about the following aspects of semiconductor testing: whether the architecture is open enough, whether the instrument performance is good or bad, the number of test channels, the cost, the construction efficiency between platforms, etc. This accelerates the demand and development of semiconductor test system based on PXI platform.
PXI platform features
PXI (PCI extensions for instrumentation) platform is a solid PC based measurement and automation platform released by PXI alliance. It has the characteristics of easy programming, easy connection, easy upgrade, easy compatibility and easy integration. The semiconductor test system based on PXI can provide a perfect solution to the problems concerned by the above target customer groups according to the opinions of customers. The semiconductor test platform based on PXI not only has low cost, but also has high-performance instrument products and bus bandwidth, as well as flexible and open software architecture. It supports api-com, vblabview Net, C and other programming languages. With the continuous development and wider application of products, the price competitiveness of such products will be more prominent.
Basic framework of PXI platform
Firstly, the semiconductor automatic test system based on PXI bus includes a pxie chassis with multiple card slots, which can minimize the system integration and software cost by integrating multiple functional modules in a compact chassis size, and realize the digital and mixed signal test with high channel density and high power, which is the most basic and important goal of PXI platform.
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PXI express chassis in the form of chassis slot and one module
At the same time, the semiconductor test system based on PXI includes multi-channel digital IO, which can realize the function test of each pin PMU and support the function of multi-point simultaneous test. Generally speaking, a chassis can support up to 512 input and output channels with PMU function per pin, and each channel has a vector rate of more than 100MHz. After integrating the “ate like” performance receiver, the chassis can be easily connected with the manipulator, which is more conducive to the test of semiconductor products.
Chassis
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Digital IO board
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Module board
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In the semiconductor test platform, the instrument software tools of file conversion, program modulation and device characterization are also essential, while the ate platform based on PXI has a variety of system software to choose from. At present, the software system mainly includes the following contents:
(1) Ateasy is a software platform used to meet all functions in the execution and management process of program development and built-in testing. It supports a variety of software combinations and various hardware interface forms, and various industry standard software components, such as Net, DLL, ActiveX, etc. are also supported FP files and VI file call, support open architecture independent of suppliers: PXI, PCI / CPCI, VXI, GPIB, TCP / IP, RS-232, ISA, USB, etc.
(2) Dioeasy is a software tool with graphical interface, waveform display / editing and other functions. It can be used in vector editing environment. It supports the import of test vector formats such as WGL, stil, VCD and evcd. At the same time, it also supports pin redefinition, pin addition / reduction, and automatic conversion.
(3) A common function library iceasy for semiconductor testing. It can simplify the development and reuse of test program, and can carry out predefined DC parameter test, including open circuit and short circuit test, input leakage current test, input / output voltage threshold test, output short circuit test, power consumption test, etc. In addition, iceasy also includes 2D shmoo test function and I-V curve test function.
Introduction of a typical test platform
In the current semiconductor test system based on PXI, ts900 series is a commonly used platform.
The ts960 test platform supports up to 20 3U card slots, has 64 to 512 mixed signal test channels, and has an integrated signal interface unit. For each pin PMU, the programmable level range is – 2V ~ 7V, and the storage space of each channel is 64MB. At the same time, ts960 test platform also supports a variety of complete sequence functions of jump, cycle and pause, and supports 125MHz data rate. Support multiple groups of timing control, data format and 1ns edge positioning. In terms of power module, SMU unit and RF instrument module, the platform has a variety of options.
One difference between ts-906 test platform and ts-960 platform is that it is a 6U test platform. In PXI standard, 3U module can be installed in 6U chassis through an adapter. Ts-906 test platform has 80-528 high-voltage channels, with a relatively small data rate of 50MHz, but the programmable range without pins is larger, which is – 15V ~ 25V. Therefore, ts-906 test platform is very suitable for high-voltage semiconductor test applications.
epilogue
In general, the PXI based modular architecture platform provides high-performance, high flexibility and high-value solutions for semiconductor testing. The development and demand progress of high-performance systems and instruments also further promote the demand for modular systems in the semiconductor market. After verification by many wafer factories and packaging factories, PXI based semiconductor test system is considered to be an efficient and economical solution.