Introduction: Over the years, high-precision and high-performance products have higher requirements on the quality of components. Therefore, the high reliability of components and other products has become a major issue for people to consider. Considering the improvement of the current testing technology, we will explore the future development trend of various aspects of testing.
Reducing test costs has become the primary goal for IC testing
The demand for smaller, more powerful chips is driving the development of the IC industry, while also driving the development of IC design and testing. For system-on-a-chip (SOC) testing, the cost has almost half of the chip's cost. According to test Moore's Law proposed by the vice president of Intel Corporation, the investment cost of silicon per transistor will be lower than its test cost in the next few years. Therefore, the biggest challenge for IC test equipment manufacturers in the future is how to reduce test costs.
In the past, integrated circuits were mainly divided into analog circuits, mixed signal circuits, and digital circuits. In 1998, a system chip called MACH-D (namely memory, analog, communication, high-speed bus, and digital abbreviation) was introduced. Tests of this kind of circuit will reduce functional tests and use more structural tests (ie, testing of ICs designed using testability). Using structural tests, without developing functional test vectors, test development time can be shortened and test costs can be saved. The use of built-in self-test (ie test circuit design in chip or IP core, test of chip or IP core through built-in test circuit) can also greatly shorten test development time and reduce test cost, but IC manufacturing, design and test must be strengthened. The cooperation of developers, combined with related tools, can make devices that are easy to test get into production faster. Another test method to reduce the test cost is to use fault-based testing, that is, to test the parts that may fail, and not to test the parts that cannot be faulted. By understanding the structure of the chip, some test circuits are designed in the manufacturing process where the failure mechanism may be introduced. This will not only guarantee a higher test coverage, but also save time and money.
Solve asynchronous test problems, need to develop IP core test standards
At present, when designing system-level ICs, designers have widely adopted ways to integrate different IP cores. This can greatly shorten the time to market of the chip. Integrating different IP cores from different vendors into one device may encounter multiple clock issues. If designers use the PCI bus and Rambus bus, different clocks make testing these IP cores in parallel extremely complicated. If the clocks of these IP cores are integer multiples, there are many alternative test methods, but when the clocks that encounter them do not have integer multiples, multiple time domains are needed in the same test equipment. That is, the working state of each pin of the device under test is in an asynchronous state, that is, some pins operate at 66 MHz/s and other pins operate at 800 Mb/s. Therefore, the next step in semiconductor testing is to solve this kind of asynchronous test problem. Now, all IP core vendors do not adopt the same kind of testability design strategy, and the access methods to the tested IP cores are also different. Therefore, IP core access standards and testability design standards need to be established.
Increase the speed of test analog ICs
Another test problem to be solved is how to develop testability designs, built-in self-tests, and other digital test techniques to meet the device's analog test. This may be a key issue from the time-to-market perspective. IC test equipment manufacturers can solve the test problems of digital circuits and high-speed serial communication ports that work with Gb/s. However, testing analog components in mixed-signal devices is very difficult. Some devices may be digital devices but have analog characteristics. Such as LAN interface circuit. The testing of such circuits is complex, time consuming, and difficult to implement. In the future, another task for IC test equipment manufacturers is to improve the test speed of such devices.
Adopt open structure to meet the needs of communication testing
Manufacturers of communications test instruments are facing new technologies, new standards and shorter product life cycle challenges. Many communication equipment manufacturers will introduce products that use new technologies such as wireless internet to the market. They introduce new products while designing new products with higher performance. Therefore, they need test instrument manufacturers to provide easy-to-upgrade test instruments to meet the test requirements of the communication equipment using the latest technology. Therefore, this kind of communication instrument will widely adopt open structure design, modularization and flexible hardware and software structure.
Develop a network tester adapted to high-speed network testing
As network speeds increase, it becomes more and more difficult for test instruments to capture network data. Existing test instruments are not very effective when testing high-speed networks. Even with large buffers, real data cannot be obtained. This urgently requires instrument manufacturers to develop test instruments with real-time filtering capabilities. In this way, fault-related data can be stored and analyzed in real time. This kind of instrument with real-time filtering and internal expert system can not only analyze the data, but also accurately locate the fault of the network.
Improve performance and meet test requirements for 2.5G/3G mobile communications
The third generation (3G) mobile communication system (IMT2000) will create a new era of broadband applications such as video conferencing and mobile e-commerce. Its development will enable users to obtain global roaming, Internet access (using WAP) and video signal transmission capabilities. Currently, mobile communication equipment manufacturers are developing transitional systems from the second generation to the third generation - second generation (2.5G) systems (GPRS, HSCSD and EDGE). Among them, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is 10 times faster than GSM, and it is estimated that it will be put into use in 2001. HSCSD (High Speed ​​Circuit Switched Data) will be used for data communications. EDGE adopts four-quadrant phase-shift keying modulation technology with a maximum access rate of 384 kbps. In the development of the above-mentioned mobile communication system, an important factor to be considered is bandwidth and spectrum limitation, and therefore high-resolution spectrum analyzers, power meters and other instruments are required. Spectrum analyzers that are suitable for testing in the above mobile communication system must meet the testing requirements for complex digital modulated signals. The power meter requires a wider dynamic range power sensor.
Portable application software will be the focus of development of virtual instruments
In recent years, computer-based instruments (also called virtual instruments) have developed very rapidly. It is an instrument that relies on software to control test hardware, analyze, and provide test data through a computer. It does not have a dedicated front panel, display, and power supply. The hardware is usually on a PC or VXI/CPCI host. All instrument panels and displays are simulated on the monitor, so they are called virtual instruments. At present, there are two types of virtual instruments. One type is a PC-based instrument. It is composed of a PC, a card or module that can be inserted into a PC chassis, and related test software (such as LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, HP-VEE, TestPoint, etc.). Using this structure can constitute a PC-based oscilloscope, arbitrary waveform generator, waveform analyzer, function generator, logic analyzer, voltmeter and data acquisition products. Another type of virtual instrument is a test system based on VXI and CPCI/PXI modules. This structure can be used to construct high-performance dedicated test systems, data acquisition systems, and automatic test equipment (ATE) for production testing. Virtual instruments provide users with a user-friendly, open-architecture test system. Its characteristics are moderate price, strong functions, fast test speed, and reorganization. Neither suppliers nor users expect virtual instruments to replace all benchtop instruments in the future. However, its application in the electronics, communications, semiconductor, and automotive industries is expanding. Software plays an important role in virtual instruments. Users now need their application software to be portable from one platform to another. For example, test programs developed on LabVIEW or LabWindows that support ISA bus cards are slightly modified and should support PCI bus cards, that is, applications. Software should have cross-platform support capabilities. For this purpose, the IVI Foundation (Exchange Virtual Instrument Foundation) established by test instrument vendors, system integrators, and users such as Tektronix, Advantest, and National Instruments is preparing to develop drivers that can support instrument modules from different manufacturers. The Open Data Collection Association (ODAA), created by companies such as Agilent, will develop open, interoperable data acquisition hardware and software based on Microsoft Corp's COM technology and PCs.
Broadband testing will become a key technology for the new millennium
In the field of communications and the Internet, broadband testing technology will become a hot technology in the new millennium. What is broadband? Its definition has always been a problem that people often talk about over the past few years. It is recognized by the industry that broadband is an access technology that can provide high-speed Internet multimedia services to users. Broadband also includes high-speed, broadband LAN, wide area network technologies, and broadband interconnect backbone technologies provided by service providers.
Dynamic Synchronous Transfer Mode (DTM) technology is one of the broadband technologies. This technology is basically a kind of time division multiplexing technology, which can adapt to changes in information flow. It is said that it can provide faster and smoother operation than ATM or SONET, and is compatible with IP, but its application remains to be seen. Most test instrument companies do not currently have test instruments for DTM technology. However, large test instrument companies are likely to have DTM test instruments for development. Once the application of DTM has soared, these companies' DTM test equipment will preempt the market.
Broadband access technology is another rapidly evolving technology. Typically, individual users access the Internet through a dial-up modem with a rate of 53 Kbps. In recent years, the multimedia content of the Internet has greatly stimulated the need for users to download video, audio and graphics. The limited speed and bandwidth of dial-up modems increase download times, making users inconvenient, and they need to develop broadband access technologies. Cable modems and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) allow a user to access the Internet at a speed of 10 times or more with a dial-up modem via a television cable or telephone line.
Digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems are currently competing in full-scale broadband services.
There are several forms of DSL, among which Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is the most common technology and has been widely used. Currently, Agilent, GenRad, Netcom Systems, Tektronix, Consultronics, Fluke, WWG, and Telebyte have introduced a large number of ADSL testers for production, research and development testing. It is expected that the DSL tester market will grow at a faster rate in the coming years, especially portable DSL testers for field testing.
The cable modem infrastructure is higher in cost than DSL, and its number of users is less than the number of telephone users. However, the delay in DSL services has affected its number of installations. In addition, the former wood ring cannot provide DSL service unless they are upgraded. The cable is not affected by these. It is therefore expected that the development of cable modem testers and DSL testers will be almost parallel in the coming years.
In addition, the broadband demand of the Internet will also enable optical communication equipment suppliers to develop technologies with transfer rates of more than 10Gbps. The adoption of packet/DWDM (High Density Wavelength Division Multiplexing) can achieve this rate, and it is expected that the corresponding high-density wavelength division multiplexing test technology will also develop rapidly.
Reducing test costs has become the primary goal for IC testing
The demand for smaller, more powerful chips is driving the development of the IC industry, while also driving the development of IC design and testing. For system-on-a-chip (SOC) testing, the cost has almost half of the chip's cost. According to test Moore's Law proposed by the vice president of Intel Corporation, the investment cost of silicon per transistor will be lower than its test cost in the next few years. Therefore, the biggest challenge for IC test equipment manufacturers in the future is how to reduce test costs.
In the past, integrated circuits were mainly divided into analog circuits, mixed signal circuits, and digital circuits. In 1998, a system chip called MACH-D (namely memory, analog, communication, high-speed bus, and digital abbreviation) was introduced. Tests of this kind of circuit will reduce functional tests and use more structural tests (ie, testing of ICs designed using testability). Using structural tests, without developing functional test vectors, test development time can be shortened and test costs can be saved. The use of built-in self-test (ie test circuit design in chip or IP core, test of chip or IP core through built-in test circuit) can also greatly shorten test development time and reduce test cost, but IC manufacturing, design and test must be strengthened. The cooperation of developers, combined with related tools, can make devices that are easy to test get into production faster. Another test method to reduce the test cost is to use fault-based testing, that is, to test the parts that may fail, and not to test the parts that cannot be faulted. By understanding the structure of the chip, some test circuits are designed in the manufacturing process where the failure mechanism may be introduced. This will not only guarantee a higher test coverage, but also save time and money.
Solve asynchronous test problems, need to develop IP core test standards
At present, when designing system-level ICs, designers have widely adopted ways to integrate different IP cores. This can greatly shorten the time to market of the chip. Integrating different IP cores from different vendors into one device may encounter multiple clock issues. If designers use the PCI bus and Rambus bus, different clocks make testing these IP cores in parallel extremely complicated. If the clocks of these IP cores are integer multiples, there are many alternative test methods, but when the clocks that encounter them do not have integer multiples, multiple time domains are needed in the same test equipment. That is, the working state of each pin of the device under test is in an asynchronous state, that is, some pins operate at 66 MHz/s and other pins operate at 800 Mb/s. Therefore, the next step in semiconductor testing is to solve this kind of asynchronous test problem. Now, all IP core vendors do not adopt the same kind of testability design strategy, and the access methods to the tested IP cores are also different. Therefore, IP core access standards and testability design standards need to be established.
Increase the speed of test analog ICs
Another test problem to be solved is how to develop testability designs, built-in self-tests, and other digital test techniques to meet the device's analog test. This may be a key issue from the time-to-market perspective. IC test equipment manufacturers can solve the test problems of digital circuits and high-speed serial communication ports that work with Gb/s. However, testing analog components in mixed-signal devices is very difficult. Some devices may be digital devices but have analog characteristics. Such as LAN interface circuit. The testing of such circuits is complex, time consuming, and difficult to implement. In the future, another task for IC test equipment manufacturers is to improve the test speed of such devices.
Adopt open structure to meet the needs of communication testing
Manufacturers of communications test instruments are facing new technologies, new standards and shorter product life cycle challenges. Many communication equipment manufacturers will introduce products that use new technologies such as wireless internet to the market. They introduce new products while designing new products with higher performance. Therefore, they need test instrument manufacturers to provide easy-to-upgrade test instruments to meet the test requirements of the communication equipment using the latest technology. Therefore, this kind of communication instrument will widely adopt open structure design, modularization and flexible hardware and software structure.
Develop a network tester adapted to high-speed network testing
As network speeds increase, it becomes more and more difficult for test instruments to capture network data. Existing test instruments are not very effective when testing high-speed networks. Even with large buffers, real data cannot be obtained. This urgently requires instrument manufacturers to develop test instruments with real-time filtering capabilities. In this way, fault-related data can be stored and analyzed in real time. This kind of instrument with real-time filtering and internal expert system can not only analyze the data, but also accurately locate the fault of the network.
Improve performance and meet test requirements for 2.5G/3G mobile communications
The third generation (3G) mobile communication system (IMT2000) will create a new era of broadband applications such as video conferencing and mobile e-commerce. Its development will enable users to obtain global roaming, Internet access (using WAP) and video signal transmission capabilities. Currently, mobile communication equipment manufacturers are developing transitional systems from the second generation to the third generation - second generation (2.5G) systems (GPRS, HSCSD and EDGE). Among them, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is 10 times faster than GSM, and it is estimated that it will be put into use in 2001. HSCSD (High Speed ​​Circuit Switched Data) will be used for data communications. EDGE adopts four-quadrant phase-shift keying modulation technology with a maximum access rate of 384 kbps. In the development of the above-mentioned mobile communication system, an important factor to be considered is bandwidth and spectrum limitation, and therefore high-resolution spectrum analyzers, power meters and other instruments are required. Spectrum analyzers that are suitable for testing in the above mobile communication system must meet the testing requirements for complex digital modulated signals. The power meter requires a wider dynamic range power sensor.
Portable application software will be the focus of development of virtual instruments
In recent years, computer-based instruments (also called virtual instruments) have developed very rapidly. It is an instrument that relies on software to control test hardware, analyze, and provide test data through a computer. It does not have a dedicated front panel, display, and power supply. The hardware is usually on a PC or VXI/CPCI host. All instrument panels and displays are simulated on the monitor, so they are called virtual instruments. At present, there are two types of virtual instruments. One type is a PC-based instrument. It is composed of a PC, a card or module that can be inserted into a PC chassis, and related test software (such as LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, HP-VEE, TestPoint, etc.). Using this structure can constitute a PC-based oscilloscope, arbitrary waveform generator, waveform analyzer, function generator, logic analyzer, voltmeter and data acquisition products. Another type of virtual instrument is a test system based on VXI and CPCI/PXI modules. This structure can be used to construct high-performance dedicated test systems, data acquisition systems, and automatic test equipment (ATE) for production testing. Virtual instruments provide users with a user-friendly, open-architecture test system. Its characteristics are moderate price, strong functions, fast test speed, and reorganization. Neither suppliers nor users expect virtual instruments to replace all benchtop instruments in the future. However, its application in the electronics, communications, semiconductor, and automotive industries is expanding. Software plays an important role in virtual instruments. Users now need their application software to be portable from one platform to another. For example, test programs developed on LabVIEW or LabWindows that support ISA bus cards are slightly modified and should support PCI bus cards, that is, applications. Software should have cross-platform support capabilities. For this purpose, the IVI Foundation (Exchange Virtual Instrument Foundation) established by test instrument vendors, system integrators, and users such as Tektronix, Advantest, and National Instruments is preparing to develop drivers that can support instrument modules from different manufacturers. The Open Data Collection Association (ODAA), created by companies such as Agilent, will develop open, interoperable data acquisition hardware and software based on Microsoft Corp's COM technology and PCs.
Broadband testing will become a key technology for the new millennium
In the field of communications and the Internet, broadband testing technology will become a hot technology in the new millennium. What is broadband? Its definition has always been a problem that people often talk about over the past few years. It is recognized by the industry that broadband is an access technology that can provide high-speed Internet multimedia services to users. Broadband also includes high-speed, broadband LAN, wide area network technologies, and broadband interconnect backbone technologies provided by service providers.
Dynamic Synchronous Transfer Mode (DTM) technology is one of the broadband technologies. This technology is basically a kind of time division multiplexing technology, which can adapt to changes in information flow. It is said that it can provide faster and smoother operation than ATM or SONET, and is compatible with IP, but its application remains to be seen. Most test instrument companies do not currently have test instruments for DTM technology. However, large test instrument companies are likely to have DTM test instruments for development. Once the application of DTM has soared, these companies' DTM test equipment will preempt the market.
Broadband access technology is another rapidly evolving technology. Typically, individual users access the Internet through a dial-up modem with a rate of 53 Kbps. In recent years, the multimedia content of the Internet has greatly stimulated the need for users to download video, audio and graphics. The limited speed and bandwidth of dial-up modems increase download times, making users inconvenient, and they need to develop broadband access technologies. Cable modems and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) allow a user to access the Internet at a speed of 10 times or more with a dial-up modem via a television cable or telephone line.
Digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems are currently competing in full-scale broadband services.
There are several forms of DSL, among which Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is the most common technology and has been widely used. Currently, Agilent, GenRad, Netcom Systems, Tektronix, Consultronics, Fluke, WWG, and Telebyte have introduced a large number of ADSL testers for production, research and development testing. It is expected that the DSL tester market will grow at a faster rate in the coming years, especially portable DSL testers for field testing.
The cable modem infrastructure is higher in cost than DSL, and its number of users is less than the number of telephone users. However, the delay in DSL services has affected its number of installations. In addition, the former wood ring cannot provide DSL service unless they are upgraded. The cable is not affected by these. It is therefore expected that the development of cable modem testers and DSL testers will be almost parallel in the coming years.
In addition, the broadband demand of the Internet will also enable optical communication equipment suppliers to develop technologies with transfer rates of more than 10Gbps. The adoption of packet/DWDM (High Density Wavelength Division Multiplexing) can achieve this rate, and it is expected that the corresponding high-density wavelength division multiplexing test technology will also develop rapidly.
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