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| What is a "Green" ATE system? |
| Tuesday, 09 February 2010 17:08 |
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Advantest highlights their "Environmentally Friendly" T5503. "Environmentally Friendly," "Green" and "ATE" usually don't appear in the same sentence. Does this pass the sniff test? In their 2009 Annual Report Advantest shines a spotlight on their, "First Certified Green Product." It is, the "Environmentally Friendly T5503 Memory Test System." What makes it green? Let's take a look. First a product plug... the T5503 is Advantest's memory test system used primarily to test DDR3-SDRAM memory products. Presumably these systems would ship in high volume (at least once the memory test market makes a comeback). The "Green" designation comes from a voluntary standard for the Green Products for Eco Label Type II. First of all energy efficiency. The product must use less than 20% of the power of it's predecessor. Second is size. There must be more than 10% reduction in total area of PCB substrate. Also related to size is the requirement that with regard to footprint miniaturization, there must be more than a 10% reduction in size. Finally there must be at least 95% green procurement. So how does the T5503 achieve these criteria? Usually a newer model tester will support more sites, run at higher speeds and include new features making the "Green" designation potentially challenging. Advantest switched to CMOS technology on the T5503 as opposed to using power hungry bipolar technology. It still achieves the 3.2Gbps speed needed for DDR3 and GDDR3/4 memories at 128 sites in parallel. To meet the miniaturization goals, Advantest optimized their circuit architecture to make the T5503, "not only faster, but more compact than that of previous models by developing new parts that allowed a reduction in the number of chip types by 80% from previous models." They were also able to greatly reduce the number of boards by integrating chips. This became possible by mounting about four times as many circuits as previous models. This high density was enabled by the CMOS switch as well. These initiatives enabled the system to reduce the installation footprint by about 40%, and reduce power consumption by about 45%. In summary... switch to CMOS, and enable green procurement methods. All good. |
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