ATE vendor Teradyne Inc. said today that Netherlands-based Salland Engineering has developed an independent instrument board for Teradyn's Flex.

Flex is Teradyne's configurable test system; it first announced in 2003 that it would open its proprietary configurable system to third-party instrument vendors, dubbing the initiative OpenFlex.

Salland's High Density Parametric Measurement Unit (HDPMU) is a single board 192-channel instrument that installs directly into the Flex system test head. Independent software drivers install directly into the Fex IG-XL software system, making the HDPMU a fully integrated, plug and play installation, the companies said.

The HDPMU is now testing broadband and power management devices in production on Flex systems at customers in Europe and Asia.

"The development of the HDPMU by Salland Engineering demonstrates the success of the OpenFlex initiative," Paul Van Ulsen, CEO of Salland Engineering, said in a statement. "Salland was quickly able to develop hardware and software using the OpenFlex guidelines to produce a fully-integrated instrument that customers can use to leverage their Flex test platform for new applications."

The HDPMU, a high-density parametric measurement unit with multiple voltage and current ranges per channel, offers up to a maximum of 6.5V and 32mA. The Salland instrument supports channel merging for a maximum of 256mA per channel and is certified through the OpenFlex initiative. The instrument can be ordered through Salland Engineering or Teradyne. Service for the HDPMU is provided by the Teradyne Global Customer Service (GCS) organization.

"Salland took full advantage of the design rules and tools we've developed for creating hardware and software under the OpenFlex initiative," Sean Adam, engineering manager for the OpenFlex initiative. "The HDPMU seamlessly integrates into the Flex environment, enabling its designation as an OpenFlex Certified product."

Driven by test costs, the argument continues over whether or not the industry should adopt an industry-wide standard for open ATE architecture, as championed by Japanese ATE vendor Advantest and the Semiconductor Test Consortium. While other purveyors of big iron have balked at the idea, they have embraced their own proprietary, configurable architectures, and in some cases opening that architecture to third-party instrument vendors a la Teradyne.

LTX was the first to push the single, configurable ATE platform with Fusion; followed by Agilent with its 93K tester and then Teradyne, with Flex, and Credence, which inherited a configurable SOC tester, Sapphire, when it merged with NP Test.

Teradyne says it has an installed base of more than 300 Flex testers at more than 40 customers.

By: DocMemory
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