Time-Effective Lab Characterization on Voltage Regulators without Compromising the Evaluation Quality

The core of semiconductor companies is product and technology development to bear the competitiveness. One of the criteria in product development is electrical lab characterization which is crucial in validating the device´s electrical functionality without jeopardizing the evaluation quality and ensuring that it is within the product specifications. Typical lab characterization takes longer time to complete since it is deploying the manual measurement method. In order to unravel these efforts, a custom-made test board named general purpose board (GPB) is designed with the capability to fulfil the entire coverage of datasheet test parameters for lab characterization. The GPB hardware supports characterization for voltage regulators which come in various device packages. Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) drives the relays on the motherboard and relay matrix concept is applied to swap the testing parameter setup from one state to another. This paper discusses the time-effective, quality assured lab characterization approach on voltage regulators.