By Simon Leigh, Elevate VP of Engineering
As the intricacy of testing grows, it’s essential for ATE vendors to continually develop strategies to offer more sophisticated solutions to their customers, yet at a reduced overall cost. ElevATE contributes to this endeavor by manufacturing products specifically engineered to decrease the Cost of Test (COT). This ultimately supports ATE vendors in their ongoing efforts to balance affordability and performance.
ElevATE emphasizes increasing density as a vital approach to lowering Cost of Test (COT). In the past, density increases were often facilitated by improved integration and the use of smaller packages. However, a considerable number of current test systems are in fact constrained by power capacity. By focusing on power reduction, we alleviate the cooling demands of the system and make the usage of cost-effective air cooling feasible, resulting in notable savings.
Rainier: 8 Channel 2Gbps Pin Electronics/DAC/PPMU/Deskew
In answer to this industry demand, ElevATE has developed “Rainier,” a new Pin Electronics chip designed for the ATE market. This innovative solution delivers superior performance, caters to a large segment of the digital pin market, and distinguishes itself by offering the lowest power consumption in the industry.
The Rainier chip is an all-inclusive solution in the realm of Pin Electronics, offering every essential feature a digital pin could need. It’s furnished with a driver, two high-speed and differential comparators, an active load, and a dedicated PMU for each pin.
At ElevATE, our status as a fabless semiconductor company spurred our ambition to craft a product with unmatched potential. This drive led us to an innovative new CMOS process, one that assured us of excellent performance.
Rainier has successfully completed the tape-out process and is currently available for sampling by customers. Benchmark data indicates that it consumes nearly one-third of the power compared to a similar competitor’s product while delivering comparable performance.
Despite this low power, Rainier’s performance is outstanding, as expected hitting 2Gbps with low jitter.
Note* Scope shot shown above is early test chip data and 2Gbps+ performance has been improved further on Rev C.
