High speed digital transceivers: A challenge for manufacturing

The evolution of personal computers and network servers is pushing the micro-electronics industry to integrate high speed transceiver macrocells onto CMOS Integrated Circuits (IC). Some examples of high speed transceiver standards are: Fiberchannel, Gigabit Ethernet, NGIO, FireWire (IEEE 1394), USB 2.0 and VESA display standards. ASICs designed for DATACOM and TELECOM applications and standard products such as FireWire (IEEE 1394) are currently running in the 400 Mb/S to 800 Mb/S data rate range. Fast data rates, coupled with low voltage swings and differential buffers, such as LVDS (Low voltage differential swing) buffers, are presenting challenges to the current generation of ATE. It has now become technically feasible to integrate gigabit transceiver macrocells into CMOS ASIC´s. Gigabit transceivers are being designed into digital ASIC designs such as disk drive controllers and Ethernet switches. The need for high quality, yet low cost solutions to test these macrocells, and stand alone standard products, has become essential