Advantest Develops Semiconductor Circuit Analysis Terahertz Technology
21 Mayo 2015 - 8:19AM
Business Wire
Poised to Accelerate Sub-Terahertz
Communications, Chip & 3D Device R&D
Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest
Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE) announced today that it has
developed a technology utilizing short-pulse terahertz waves for
analysis of electrical circuits. The technology has 2 major
applications – analysis of the transmission characteristics (S
parameters) of devices using the sub-terahertz band (100GHz~1THz),
and characterization and location of failures in chip circuits
(TDT/TDR). The new technology overcomes the technical obstacles and
prohibitive cost of existing technologies, and will contribute
significantly to the development and wider adoption of these
leading-edge devices.
1. Sub-terahertz transmission characteristics analysis
technology
The popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices has
driven enormous increases in wireless communications traffic, which
now threatens to overwhelm the capacity of currently assigned
frequencies. Hence, worldwide R&D efforts have begun to focus
on the sub-terahertz band, a higher frequency range which has not
been used for wireless communications to date.
In high-frequency device development, it is crucial to evaluate
the frequency characteristics of the overall system, including
active device gain and input and output impedance, as well as the
board and connectors. Part of this process is measurement of the
reflection and transmission characteristics of the amplitude and
phase of signals emitted, known as S-parameters or scattering
parameters. However, existing network analyzers can only measure
frequency ranges up to 100GHz wide at one time, so when the signal
characteristics of broader ranges must be evaluated, engineers have
to repeatedly change the configuration of their equipment and
measure again. This causes extra work, longer measurement times,
and discontinuities in measured data. Measurement costs also rise
proportionately to these drawbacks.
Advantest’s new technology promises to reduce these burdens
significantly. It employs femtosecond optical pulsed laser as a
signal source, enabling one-pass measurement of S-parameters up to
1.5THz with a broadband optical/electrical switching probe. The
benefits of these efficiency gains will accrue to users in terms of
time, labor, and cost savings.
2. High spatial resolution chip wiring quality analysis
technology
Although continued shrinks of semiconductor circuits have
facilitated generations of smaller, faster consumer electronics,
Moore’s law is in danger of hitting a technological wall. To
circumvent the physical limits of miniaturization, chipmakers are
developing 3D semiconductors with multiple layers of circuits in a
single package. However, wiring failure analysis is a major
challenge in 3D chip development. With multiple boards stacked on
top of each other, it is difficult to identify where wiring
failures (open circuits, short-circuits, impedance mismatching)
have occurred with X-ray inspection and other existing
technologies. Generally, oscilloscope TDR (time domain
reflectometry) and/or TDT (time domain transmissometry) is used to
pinpoint these failures, but at these tiny geometries, extremely
high spatial resolution is a must.
Because Advantest’s new technology uses a femtosecond optical
pulsed laser as a signal source, it achieves superior spatial
resolution of less than 5μm and a maximum measurement range of
300mm. With a successful track record of usage in the company’s
terahertz spectroscopic and imaging systems, Advantest’s
femtosecond optical pulsed laser boasts extremely high resolution.
Moreover, the new technology provides a mapping function which can
pinpoint the location of wiring failures on the device’s CAD data,
making it an optimal tool for finding flaws in extremely complex,
high-density circuits.
Advantest is planning to commercialize the new technology within
its fiscal year 2015 (by the end of March, 2016). A prototype
system utilizing the new technology will be exhibited at Wireless
Technology Park, to be held at Tokyo’s Big Sight on May 27-29,
2015.
About Advantest Corporation
A world-class technology company, Advantest is the leading
producer of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor
industry and a premier manufacturer of measuring instruments used
in the design and production of electronic instruments and systems.
Its leading-edge systems and products are integrated into the most
advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. The company
also focuses on R&D for emerging markets that benefit from
advancements in nanotech and terahertz technologies, and has
introduced multi-vision metrology scanning electron microscopes
essential to photomask manufacturing, as well as a groundbreaking
3D imaging and analysis tools. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest
established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has
subsidiaries worldwide. More information is available at
www.advantest.com.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150521005754/en/
Advantest CorporationHiroki Yanagita,
088-3-3214-7500Hiroki.Yanagita@advantest.com
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