Headquartered in Shanghai, China, NCATEST Technologies researches, designs, and manufactures high-end automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor industry. NCATEST, which prides itself on local production, extensive applications coverage, fast lead times, cost-effective solutions, and customized services and development, aims to be the country’s top ATE company.

Challenges

For its ATE solutions, NCATEST requires underlying analog ICs with qualities including high accuracy, low power, and high performance.

Solution and Benefits

To meet its requirements, NCATEST selected the MAX9979 dual 1.1Gbps pin electronics, which integrates multiple automatic test equipment (ATE) functions in a single IC, including parametric measurement unit (PMU), level-setting digital-to-analog converters (DACs), driver/comparator/load (DCL), and switches, while maintaining discrete device performance. The company is also using these analog ICs:

• MAX6350 low-noise, precision voltage reference
• MAX6325 low-noise, precision voltage reference
• MAX811 low-power microprocessor supervisory circuit
• MAX3232 low-power true RS-232 transceiver
• MAX541 serial-input, voltage-output 16-bit DACs
• MAX4820 8-channel, cascadable relay driver with serial/parallel interface
• MAX11160 16-bit, 500ksps SAR analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with internal reference
• MAX14783 half-duplex RS-485/422 transceiver with ±35kV HBM ESD protection
• MAX6696 dual remote/local temperature sensor with SMBus serial interface

According to Eric Zhu, the company’s CEO, each of these ICs met the company’s specifications, performance targets, and price points. With these devices, NCATEST was able to reduce its design cycle while creating an ATE solution that is smaller, lower power, and better performing than its predecessor.