Ridgetop Group Announces Solution Developed for Intermittency Detection in Electronic Components
TUCSON, Ariz. -- May 17, 2010 -- Officials at Ridgetop Group, Inc., a leading designer of effective diagnostic and prognostic tools for complex electronic systems, have announced a solution for detection of intermittencies on programmable processors. SJ BIST™ (Solder Joint Built-In Self-Test™) is a Verilog-instantiated soft-core product that can easily be integrated into Xilinx® or Altera field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
Intermittent connections caused by cold or cracked solder joints plague modern equipment, and have been exacerbated by the lead-free solder mandates. These intermittencies, when occurring in critical systems, can cause catastrophic failures. Many field returns of electronic modules are found to have these intermittencies. In these cases, the reported anomalies or performance problems cannot be duplicated on the bench. Thus, a solution to detect these problems is very important.
FPGAs offer designers wide flexibility in combining, on a single package, functionality of CPU cores, memory cores, I/O cores, and now, with the introduction of SJ BIST, intermittency and health monitoring soft cores. Ball grid array (BGA) packages are widely used by FPGA manufacturers to achieve the high interconnection density that is required. BGAs can have ball counts exceeding 1,000 and these balls are, in turn, affixed to printed circuit boards (PCBs). When a PCB is subjected to vibration and other adverse environmental conditions, the solder balls can crack, oxidize, and eventually fail during operation.
In independent laboratory tests conducted by BAE Systems and automotive firms, SJ BIST has been extensively tested under highly accelerated life testing (HALT) conditions. The test results indicate 100% detection capability of solder joint faults with zero false alarms.
According to Phil Davies, Division Manager, “We are very pleased with the acceptance of SJ BIST for critical systems with FPGAs. We have found many critical aerospace and automotive applications where intermittencies have caused significant performance problems, and we have developed this solution to address them.”
“BAE Systems always seeks advanced technology to provide improved capabilities to the warfighter,” said Bill Berical, Vice President of Engineering at BAE Systems’ Platform Solutions unit. “SJ BIST technology addresses the DoD push toward condition-based maintenance and prognostics, and this technology enables early notification of impending failure of electronic components.”
About Ridgetop Group
Ridgetop Group, Inc. is the world leader in providing advanced electronic prognostics and health management (ePHM) solutions, semiconductor IP blocks, and built-in self-test (BIST) solutions for critical applications. Founded in 2000 with the purpose of introducing revolutionary tools to improve performance of mission-critical electronic systems, Ridgetop has built an impressive list of customers in North America, Europe, and Asia.
For more information, please contact Phil Davies, Director, Sales and Marketing at 520-742-3300, or visit our website at www.RidgetopGroup.com.
Related Semiconductor IP
- Rad-Hard GPIO, ODIO & LVDS in SkyWater 90nm
- 1.22V/1uA Reference voltage and current source
- 1.2V SLVS Transceiver in UMC 110nm
- 1.8V/3.3V GPIO With I2C Compliant ODIO in GF 55nm
- Verification IP for UALink
Related News
- Toshiba Launches 32-Bit Microcontroller For Analog Circuit Control In Industrial and Appliance Applications
- Toshiba Introduces Super Speed USB 3.0-Compliant USB Flash Memory
- Toshiba NAND Solutions Address Growing Demand for Error Correction
- The First Toshiba ARM Cortex-M0 Microcontroller Optimized for Smart Meters
Latest News
- EXTOLL received GlobalFoundries Award for “Interface IP Partner of the Year”
- AiM Future and Franklin Wireless Sign MOU to Jointly Develop Lightweight AI Model and High-Efficiency 1 TOPS AI SoC Chipset
- GlobalFoundries and Silicon Labs Partner to Scale Industry-Leading Wi-Fi Connectivity
- GlobalFoundries Announces Availability of 22FDX+ RRAM Technology for Wireless Connectivity and AI Applications
- GlobalFoundries Announces Production Release of 130CBIC SiGe Platform for High-Performance Smart Mobile, Communication and Industrial Applications