Parallel test and RF testing enhanced

Keithley Instruments announces the release of KTE V5.2, Keithley's Interactive Test Environment software for the Series S600 Parametric Test System.

Keithley Instruments announces the release of KTE V5.2, Keithley's Interactive Test Environment software for the Series S600 Parametric Test System.

KTE V5.2 provides a number of features that dramatically increase throughput for leading-edge circuit materials testing, such as those requiring RF level frequencies, as well as incorporating improvements in parallel test routines used for lab and production applications.

In addition, the KTE V5.2 software update offers significant improvements in ease of use that simplify testing.

This latest KTE software release represents a continuation of Keithley's commitment to continuous improvement and capital equipment reuse, helping test engineers lower their overall cost of test.

Keithley is evolving its capabilities to meet the changing demands these customers increasingly are facing, such as more complete testing earlier in the process and acquiring statistically significant RF data sets for model calibration.

Keithley's KTE is a powerful wafer test development and execution environment that guides test engineers through the development of a test plan.

Users can create individual electrical tests at the subsite level by drawing on pre-defined libraries of test, then defining parameters and connections.

KTE V5.2 is designed to work with Keithley's Series S600 Parametric Test Systems.

The Series S600 is used in a wide range of tests, including process control, process and equipment tuning and optimisation, wafer testing, and device modeling and characterisation.

The S600 has been in use for more than five generations of technology nodes within the semiconductor industry, a span of time that leads the industry with its record of capital equipment re-use that enables customers to lower their cost of test.

Among the most significant enhancements to the KTE V5.2 release are improvements in parallel test support.

Parallel test has become a prime method for improving throughput and reducing cost of semiconductor test by allowing users to acquire more data in the same test time during process development or the same amount of data in less time during volume fabrication.

New features included in the KTE V5.2 release include fully audited support for PT_Execute, a software routine that allows quick evaluation of parallel versus serial test.

Older evaluation methods involved complicated user guidebooks that consume time and engineering resources.

PT_Execute can be run in a few short keystrokes, which drastically shorten engineering development time and reduce overall cost of ownership.

Another enhancement is FMI (Force-Measurement Interlock), a combined firmware/software solution that reduces crosstalk, noise, and measurement variability of test results.

The RF test enhancements in the new KTE V5.2, which include improved LRM calibration, are much more useful than existing techniques and unlike any comparable offering in the market today, because they enable correlated measurement and calibration in a production environment.

These enhancements complement Keithley's S680 Parametric Test System with RF measurements, which can take precise DC and RF measurements simultaneously, making it suitable for both lab and production use.

Improved error message descriptions help simplify troubleshooting.

Another enhancement involves the tracking of calibration site touchdowns for predicting probe tip wear-out.

The RF test browser software package allows massive and rapid data reduction of large data sets to determine key RF parameters of interest, an enabling capability for RF device engineers for performing process control in real time.

Keithley's KTE V5.2 also features improved support for embedded instrument sub-systems in ways designed to boost overall system test throughput.

The system optimises a variety of new sub-systems, including a new LCR meter that improves capacitance measurement throughput by up to 2X, a spectrum analyser (increasingly being used for benchmark circuit analysis), and Keithley's Series 3400 Pulse/Pattern Generators.

The Series 3400 Pulse/Pattern Generators meet the increasing need for pulse testing in advanced semiconductor device characterization and material research.

These applications are driven mainly by the ongoing reduction in device size and increase in operating speeds of many electronic components and materials.

Keithley's KTE V5.2 also features significant improvements in ease of use.

Enhancements in KRM (Keithley Recipe Manager) allow for multiple recipe editing and handling with input from one recipe (test routine), minimising programmer intervention.

Additional features include highlighting text found during a search function and adding an Undo function for editing during data input.

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