The best of both worlds: Merging the benefits of Rack&Stack and universal ATE

Test cost is and will continue to be one of the most important issues, especially in testing analog, mixed-signal and RF devices. When considering overall test cost, the key factors are low cost test equipment, low cost of ownership and low test development cost. Universal ATE (‘big iron’) is associated with high equipment cost but its powerful SW enables cost-efficient test development. Rack&Stack systems, on the other hand, can be assembled from inexpensive components, but load test engineers with much higher effort for test development and debug. This paper describes a concept that promises to combine the respective advantages of Rack&Stack and universal test systems by establishing a versatile test platform in HW based on industry standards enabling modular, least-cost, application-specific configuration with a likewise standard based SW environment for efficient test generation and debug, inherently supporting virtual test and test synthesis from formal specification.