Author's Latest Posts

Standardizing Platforms From Characterization To Production
By NI - 18 Jan, 2017 - Comments: 0

In 1983, the first commercial mobile phone retailed for $3995, almost $10,000 in today’s economy. It supported a single band, weighed almost a kilogram, and was about the size of a brick. Two decades later, a quad-band “world phone” costs a few hundred dollars. Even a basic mobile phone that supports over 20 cellular bands, in addition to Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, and GPS technology, ... » read more

When Exposed To IoT, Big Iron ATE Will Rust
By NI - 14 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 0

When the first “smart” refrigerators were released in the early 2000s, consumers weren’t sure what to do with them. When Nest released the smart thermostat, though, a revolution happened. Humans were taken out of the loop because the thermostat learned on its own about desired temperature and how quickly it could cool or heat a house. And it could synchronize all of this better than a hum... » read more

A Product Development Flow For 5G/LTE Envelope Tracking Power Amplifiers
By NI - 17 Nov, 2016 - Comments: 0

Next-generation communication systems will rely on system architectures that will challenge component level design. This NI AWR software white paper examines the use of envelope tracking (ET), digital pre-distortion, and impedance matching via load pull to improve the efficiency and linearity performance of RF PAs targeting 4G and 5G applications. To read more, click here. » read more

What To Do With A GaN PDK
By NI - 20 Oct, 2016 - Comments: 0

Wolfspeed's Jeremy Fisher provides a hands on demo of how his group achieved a first-pass run of a 40GHz MMIC chip using using a PDK for its 0.14 micron process. [youtube vid=i7dsQG8CTO4] » read more

Testing the Big Bang of Smart Devices
By NI - 19 Oct, 2016 - Comments: 0

Thanks to the proliferation of smart devices in the Internet of Things (IoT), it’s a circumstance not unlike the overwhelming sense of wonder and bewilderment that ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy must have felt when gazing up at a sky full of stars on a clear winter’s night, trying to rationalize the vast tableau before him. But just as we wouldn’t critique early astronomers and philo... » read more

Envelope Tracking Fundamentals And Test Solutions?
By NI - 21 Sep, 2016 - Comments: 0

There was once a time when your cell phone could go for days without needing to be recharged. Today, despite the innovations in cell phone battery technology, new demands, such as more internal radios and larger and higher resolution screens, place a greater drain on battery life than ever before. As a result, engineers must consistently innovate to reduce the power consumption as new technolog... » read more

Bridging The Gap Between RF Front-End Module Characterization And Production Test With The Semiconductor Test System
By NI - 17 Aug, 2016 - Comments: 0

The rapid evolution of wireless connectivity has driven continual consumer thirst for more data throughput and reduced time to market. These pressures have led to modern signaling standards such as 802.11ac and LTE-Advanced, which have placed even more challenging design and test requirements on the most nonlinear and energy-demanding component in the transmitter, the RF power amplifier. The in... » read more

RF Front End Testing With NI PXI
By NI - 20 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 0

What composes an RF front end in today’s radio devices? If you were to take apart your mobile phone, you would see an assortment of chips with different functions that make wireless communication possible. This white paper focuses on the duplexer, power amplifiers (PAs), and RF transceiver. To read more, click here. » read more

A New Approach For IC Test
By NI - 22 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 0

Since its inception, a founding principle of the semiconductor industry has been to continually improve performance while driving down cost. In other words, offer more for the money. However, amid greater device complexity, shorter product cycles, and relentless cost pressure, the test portion represents an increasing percentage of the total IC cost and a significant part of the product develop... » read more

Highly Parallel Wafer Level Reliability Systems With PXI SMUs
By NI - 18 May, 2016 - Comments: 1

Reliability testing has long served as a method of ensuring that semiconductor devices maintain their desired performance over a given lifetime. As IC manufacturers continue to introduce new and innovative processes with decreasing device geometries, they need to ensure the additional complexity from these changes does not affect the long-term reliability of their ICs. Additionally, major techn... » read more

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