ATE timing measurement unit and method

US6609077B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Teradyne, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Benjamin J. Brown · Palo Alto, US
• Erik V. Hultine · Beaverton, US
• John R. Pane · Tigard, US
• Andrew Firth · Portland, US
• Chiyi Jin · Thousand Oaks, US
• Binwei Yang · Austin, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 31, 2000
• Grant date: Aug 19, 2003
• Expiry date: Sep 18, 2020

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R31/31937
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Automatic test equipment is disclosed for testing a semiconductor device and including a computer workstation and pin electronics circuitry coupled between the semiconductor device and the computer. The pin electronics circuitry includes a plurality of channels, each channel having timing circuitry operative in response to desired programmed timing information, driver/comparator circuitry coupled to the timing circuitry for driving test waveforms at a period T, and sampling data from the waveforms at a beat period T +/−&Dgr;t, and a timing measurement unit. The timing measurement unit is coupled to the driver/comparator circuitry for measuring the relative timings of the sampled data. The plurality of channels cooperate to produce substantially real-time timing measurement data in parallel.