MegaTrace: Automated Curve Tracer for High Pin Count Device Testing

Complete Curve Trace System

Complete MegaTrace System

Unlike the benchtop MultiTrace, MegaTrace features a mobile cart design, incorporating a test chassis, PC monitor, drive bus box, and a customizable test interface tailored to your specific device and testing requirements. It commonly utilizes an Octopogo interface, which is adaptable through device-specific Octopogo daughtercards.

Load Board Interface

Octopogo load board interface

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MegaTrace boasts a portable cart setup, equipped with a test chassis, PC monitor, integrated drive bus box, and a test interface customizable to meet the precise needs of your device and testing criteria. It typically employs an Octopogo interface, further enhanced by device-specific Octopogo daughtercards for adaptability.

More Hardware Features of MultiTrace:

• Cart form for easy movement around the lab
• 1080 and 1152 pins are the most common
• 648, 864, 1080, and 1296 pin counts are also common
• Supports bus configurations
  • Custom 8 bus configurations available
• Custom test fixtures and interfaces available to suit your needs
• Fixtures have access to all drives and measurement nodes via banana jacks
• Side panels remove easily for access and service

Test Applications for MegaTrace

Failure Analysis: MegaTrace allows for detailed characterization of devices that have failed in production or in the field, identifying anomalies and clues that can lead to the root causes of failure in an effort to prevent future occurrences and improve product design. 

Reliability Testing: With MegaTrace, devices undergo rigorous testing under various environmental and operational conditions can be monitored for damage to the electrical connection to the pins in order to ensure their long-term reliability and performance. 

Counterfeit Device Analysis: MegaTrace is useful for verifying the authenticity of electronic components, protecting the supply chain from counterfeit parts that can compromise system integrity.  Signatures of devices can be saved and comparted among like devices to show similar internal construction 

Nondestructive Electrical Test: This application utilizes MegaTrace to perform electrical testing on suspected counterfeit devices without causing any physical damage, ensuring their functionality and compliance with specifications after testing is done. 

Opens, Shorts, and Leakage Testing (OSL): MegaTrace provides precise measurements for detecting open circuits, short circuits, and leakage currents in electronic devices, crucial for quality control and troubleshooting. Evaluate linearity of leakage and shorts just by looking. 

Post-Decap Electrical Inspection: After decapsulation of an integrated circuit, MegaTrace curve trace results can be compared to before decapsulation to show it has not changed as a result of the procedure.   

Optical Fault Localization: Using advanced optical techniques, MegaTrace helps provide the necessary electrical bias to the leakage to aid in pinpointing the exact location of faults within a device, enabling efficient and accurate repairs. 

ESD Testing: When Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) testing is done using other tester hardware,  MegaTrace test results help find the damage that may have occurred and helps ensures that devices can withstand electrostatic events, which are common in real-world environments, thereby preventing premature failures. 

Latch-Up Testing: MegaTrace is one of the very few automated tools that conducts latch-up testing to assess the susceptibility of CMOS circuits to latch-up conditions, which can lead to catastrophic device failure if not properly managed. 

Supply Current Measurements: By measuring the supply current accurately, MegaTrace helps in identifying excessive power consumption issues and ensuring that devices meet their power efficiency targets. High Static Supply Current (IDDQ) is a common failure signature that MegaTrace can measure using repeatable easy to configure test conditions.