Cascade debuts 150-mm measurement platform
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 4/25/2006 4:24:00 AM
Targeting semiconductor wafers, ICs, printed-circuit boards, MEMS, and bioscience devices, the M150 brings Cascade Microtech's DC-to-220-GHz measurement capability to a low-cost, flexible, 150-mm device measurement platform that allows customers to switch between applications within minutes.
The M150 is customer-configurable with interchangeable standard parts and accessories optimized for specific measurement needs. Cascade product manager Diana Laboy-Rush likens the system's configurability to Lego blocks, enabling customers to "snap together" a system consisting of a selection of thermal chucks, PCB fixtures, or other DUT holders; platens and platen supports; stages that provide mobility for DUT holders; and single-arm boom or high-stability bridge microscope supports. She says that customers can replace a module in five minutes and reconfigure a complete system in 20 minutes. In addition to being able to build their own systems optimized to their applications, customers can choose M150 systems in application-specific preconfigured packages for DC, RF, failure-analysis, PCB-test, or millimeter-wave applications.
Laboy-Rush says the M150 is aimed at helping customers solve device problems such as those related to power consumption, operating frequency, signal isolation, signal integrity, and channel bandwidth.
The M150, Laboy-Rush reports, is designed for customers who work in semiconductor fabs, yield departments, and failure-analysis labs; who are working on process characterization of III-V compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide, silicon germanium, and indium phosphide for RF, microwave, and millimeter wave applications; who are investigating signal-integrity issues on PCBs and high-speed interconnects; and who are working with emerging technologies to accurately position, navigate, and view their analysis for applications such as lab-on-a-chip, microfluidics, organic transistors, polytec neurons, MEMS devices, and other biostructures.
Base prices: from $5000 for a basic DC measurement system to $45,000 for a millimeter-wave system.
