May 4, 2014. Vendors last month unveiled of products and highlighted product-related news in several categories, including ATE, integrated circuits, components, software, and instruments. Highlights will be featured in our upcoming June print issue, and you can always find the latest news in our online News Archive. And see the additional items listed below:
- ATE
Boston Semi Equipment LLC (BSE) announced that it has completed the purchase of the test handler assets of Aetrium Inc. Aetrium's products and served markets are complementary to BSE's current automated test equipment (ATE) product lines, as gravity test handlers are used in conjunction with a significant percentage of all semiconductor ATE systems.
“Handlers are an ideal complement to our tester business,” stated Bryan Banish, president and CEO, Boston Semi Equipment. “Aetrium has been gaining momentum in the marketplace with its wide range of applications, willingness to engineer products to meet unique customer requirements, and competitive pricing. Our knowledge of test technology combined with the test handler solutions of Aetrium is a competitive advantage for BSE and offers a clear benefit to our customers.”
Averna, a developer of test solutions and services for communications and electronics device-makers, announced it has kicked off its Early Adopter Program for the Jupiter 310, the upcoming Design Verification System for DOCSIS 3.1.
This latest offering from Averna will enable equipment and chipset manufacturers to contribute to and acquire Averna’s next-generation Jupiter, a cost-effective DOCSIS 3.1 solution for automated physical layer testing.
- Integrated circuits
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. said engineers can achieve the industry’s highest resolution and fastest sampling rate at the lowest power with the MAX11905, a 20-bit, 1.6-MS/s successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC).
Typically, the company said, when engineers require high-precision data conversion, they turn to a delta-sigma ADC. However, to produce high precision and wide dynamic range, those ADCs must consume at least 100 mW of power. In contrast, the MAX11905 SAR ADC consumes only 9 mW—a 91% power savings. The MAX11905 also integrates internal reference buffers, which reduces cost and time to market and saves up to 50% space compared to discrete solutions. The MAX11905 is suitable for a wide range of applications, including process control, automatic test equipment, medical instrumentation, and battery-powered devices.
Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. introduced its next-generation, UltraCMOS PE4312 Digital Step Attenuator (DSA). Successor to the PE4302—which boasts more than 35 million units shipped since its introduction—the new PE4312 enables flexible, wide dynamic-range network-infrastructure designs that require highly accurate and efficient amplitude control. This DSA upgrade is ideally for wireless-infrastructure devices, broadband consumer and infrastructure equipment, land mobile radios (LMRs), test-and-measurement equipment, and military RF applications.
“Peregrine created the category of digital step attenuators with the UltraCMOS PE4302, and today’s announcement of our next-generation DSA will enable us to preserve our market leadership as the DSA category demands evolve,” says Kinana Hussain, senior marketing manager at Peregrine. “Based on customer requests, the UltraCMOS PE4312 features an extended temperature range that enable RF engineers to simplify thermal design, wider power-supply range to enable flexible power-supply routing, 1.8-V-compatible control voltage levels to enable lower-power designs and higher ESD ratings to ease manufacturing flow.”
- Components
Coilcraft’s XFL6012 Series of shielded power inductors combine current ratings as high as 14.3 A with DC resistance down to 7.06 mΩ. The high-performance, molded parts are mechanically rugged and magnetically shielded, making them suitable for use in high-density circuits. They are offered in five inductance values from 0.18 to 1.0 µH.
The XFL6012 Series power inductors feature RoHS-compliant tin-silver over copper terminations and offer a maximum reflow temperature of 260°C. COTS Plus tin-lead terminations are also available.
VARTA Microbattery, a provider of a variety of rechargeable and primary batteries for the industrial, medical, and communications industries, announced the CellPac BLOX system, which is a design program implemented to offer OEMs a semicustom power solution when off-the-shelf lithium ion (li-ion) or lithium polymer (LiPO) soft pack battery assemblies do not meet the design criteria. A dedicated CellPac BLOX engineering staff is specifically trained to help accelerate time-to-market and minimize non-recurring engineering (NRE) by consulting with customers throughout every phase of the design cycle.
- Software
OriginLab, a publisher of data-analysis and graphing software, announced the availability of Origin Viewer 9.1 at the Experimental Biology 2014 conference in San Diego. The standalone application allows viewing and copying of information from Origin Project Files without having Origin installed. This latest upgrade now supports viewing rotatable OpenGL 3D graphs, is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and can be easily distributed and used without installation. Origin Viewer 9.1 is available to download for free from the OriginLab website: http://originlab.com/viewer/.
Origin Viewer 9.1 allows Origin users to share their Origin project files with colleagues who do not have the Origin software, allowing for broad collaboration. Colleagues can directly run Origin Viewer and open Origin project files, accessing the data, graphs and analysis results provided by the user. Multiple graphs can be viewed simultaneously by opening them in resizable floating windows. Contents of the project file can also be copied into third party software such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint for the creation of reports and presentations.
EMA Design Automation announced TimingDesigner 9.4, which is tightly integrated with the Cadence Allegro Sigrity SI solution to provide a unique, highly-automated timing closure environment for DDRx interface design and sign-off. “This integration allows the Sigrity solution to automatically export cycle-accurate timing simulation results to TimingDesigner for graphical viewing and analysis,” said Manny Marcano, president and CEO of EMA. “This is the only solution on the market which combines power-aware sign-off-level simulation accuracy with fully parameterized timing diagrams to ensure DDRx sign-off success.”
- Instruments
Saelig Company Inc. announced it will be offering the Rigol M300 Data Acquisition System, which integrates Rigol's 6.5-digit DMM technology into a robust and versatile system mainframe with modules to enable applications from multichannel scanning to switching and control. The M300 mainframe can hold up to five modules and up to 320 switch points. The mainframe's user-friendly graphical display makes scan configuration, monitoring, and storage significantly easier than more traditional front panel interfaces.
Saelig also said it will be offering Rigol's DSG3000 Series RF signal-source family, is available with maximum frequencies of either 3 GHz or 6 GHz.
Megger, a manufacturer and supplier of test equipment and measuring instruments for electrical power applications, now offers a handheld time domain reflectometer (TDR) that locates faults on mixed paired metallic cables. The CFL535G can test the capabilities of connections and locate faults for up to 12 miles (20 km).
This high-resolution, compact TDR features dual-channel capability and dual aspect display. Megger’s CFL535G allows technicians to compare cable pairs to each other and determine if one is faulty, based on differences shown on the TDR.
TDK announced the introduction of the five-year-warranty TDK-Lambda RWS-B series of AC/DC power supplies. The product line up has four power levels and compact case sizes, rated at 100, 150, 300, and 600 W.
Operating from a universal input of 47 to 63 Hz, 85 to 265 VAC (300 VAC for 5 s), the RWS-B series is available with nominal outputs of 5, 12, 24, and 48 VDC with an adjustment range of a minimum of ±10%. The series is designed to meet a range of applications, including industrial, test and measurement, broadcast, communications, and LED signage.
VTI Instruments introduced its CMX-9138—part of the company's creatEX series of 42U pre-engineered ATE system racks that come complete with power distribution, cooling fans, filtering, shelves, and blanking panels. CreatEX configurations provide ATE architects core building blocks wrapped into one part number, saving considerable time, money and documentation.