The Fairchild Sentry 50 Tester: Establishing New ATE Performance Limits

Traditional ATE systems cannot accommodate newly designed, technologically advanced devices with large pin counts and high data rates. Fairchild´s Digital Test Systems Division has developed a new-generation tester??the Sentry 50??with a high-speed subsystem that preserves signal integrity and timing accuracy. This article describes the salient characteristics and functionality of that high-speed subsystem´s major components. Included is a discussion of the technology that implements these functionalities at their required performance levels, which are achieved by the use of high-performance VLSI devices, digital and analogy hybrid circuits, surface-mounted device technology, and ``thin-line´´ multilayer printed circuit boards and backplanes.