Channel PI calibration device and test machine

Abstract

The invention relates to a channel PI calibration device and a test machine, and the device comprises a waveform control module which is connected with a receiving and transmitting module, generates square wave code type data according to a configuration command issued by an upper computer, and transmits the square wave code type data to the receiving and transmitting module; the PI control module is connected with the receiving and transmitting module and configures a PI adjustment value for the receiving and transmitting module according to a configuration command issued by the upper computer; the transceiving module is connected with the pin circuit module, performs phase adjustment on the received sending clock according to the configured PI adjustment value, and sends the square wave code type data to the pin circuit module according to the clock after phase adjustment; and the PI measurement module is connected with the pin circuit module and is used for receiving the signal returned by the pin circuit module and carrying out continuous sampling to obtain sampling result data so as to be used for analyzing the variation of the PI. Calibration of different channel PIs can be achieved, internal calibration of the testing machine is adopted, new errors caused by access of external instruments and meters are avoided, and calibration reliability is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of semiconductor testing technology, and in particular to a channel PI calibration device and a testing machine. Background Art

[0002] Semiconductor automated testing refers to the use of automatic test equipment (ATE) to detect various parameter indicators of the device under test (DUT) to eliminate defective products to control the factory quality of semiconductors. In the resource board of the tester, a phase interpolator (PI) is set on the sending side. Its main function is to phase adjust the data sent in the resource board and align the phase between channels, so that each channel can send data according to the set phase at the beginning of the data transmission. Especially in the process of high-speed signal transmission of pattern data, it is necessary to adjust the phase relationship between the two channels. At this time, PI is required to perform fine phase adjustment on the channel. Due to the deviation of the theoretical value of PI between chip batches and different channels of the same chip, as well as temperature, clock deviation, and voltage fluctuations, the theoretical value between each channel needs to be calibrated. Therefore, how to achieve reliable calibration of channel PI is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the invention

[0003] Based on this, it is necessary to provide a channel PI calibration device and a testing machine that can improve calibration reliability in order to address the above problems.

[0004] A first aspect of the present application provides a channel PI calibration device, comprising: The waveform control module is connected to the transceiver module, generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and sends it to the transceiver module; A PI control module, connected to the transceiver module, configures a PI adjustment value for the transceiver module according to a configuration command sent by a host computer; The transceiver module is connected to the pin circuit module, performs phase adjustment on the received transmission clock according to the configured PI adjustment value, and sends the square wave code data to the pin circuit module according to the phase-adjusted clock; The PI measurement module is connected to the pin circuit module, receives the signal returned by the pin circuit module for continuous sampling, and obtains sampling result data; the sampling result data is used to analyze the change amount of PI.

[0005] In one of the embodiments, the waveform control module generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and stores it in the internal cache unit, and after receiving the sending command sent by the host computer, the square wave code data in the internal cache unit is sent to the transceiver module; the sending command is a configuration command sent by the host computer to the PI control module, which configures the PI adjustment value of the transceiver module and then sends it.

[0006] In one of the embodiments, the transceiver module performs parallel-to-serial conversion on the square wave code data according to the phase-adjusted clock, and then outputs a differential signal to the pin circuit module.

[0007] In one embodiment, the PI measurement module converts the differential signal returned by the pin circuit module into a single-ended signal, performs multi-level sampling on the single-ended signal according to a sampling clock and starts timing according to a reference clock, generates a rising edge according to the continuously sampled two-level signal, and stops sampling after the timing reaches a set sampling preset value, and counts the number of rising edges collected to obtain a sampling value; wherein the change in PI is calculated based on the sampling value, the period of the sampling clock, and the sampling preset value.

[0008] In one embodiment, the channel PI calibration device further includes: The clock processing module is connected to the transceiver module and the PI measurement module, receives an external initial clock signal for processing, outputs the sending clock to the transceiver module, and outputs the sampling clock and the reference clock to the PI measurement module.

[0009] In one embodiment, the PI measurement module performs AND processing on the non-signal of the latter-stage signal and the previous-stage signal in the two-stage continuously sampled signals other than the first-stage signal to obtain a rising edge.

[0010] In one embodiment, the calculation formula of the change of PI is: .

[0011] In one embodiment, the channel PI calibration device further includes: The protocol analysis module is connected to the pin circuit module and performs register parameter configuration on the pin circuit module according to the configuration command sent by the host computer.

[0012] In one of the embodiments, the test machine includes a plurality of test channels, each of which is provided with the waveform control module, the PI control module, the transceiver module, the PI measurement module, the protocol analysis module and the pin circuit module.

[0013] A second aspect of the present application provides a testing machine, including a host computer and the above-mentioned channel PI calibration device.

[0014] In the above-mentioned channel PI calibration device and test machine, the waveform control module generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and sends it to the transceiver module; the PI control module configures the PI adjustment value for the transceiver module according to the configuration command sent by the host computer; the transceiver module adjusts the phase of the received transmission clock according to the configured PI adjustment value, and sends the square wave code data to the pin circuit module according to the phase-adjusted clock; the PI measurement module receives the signal returned by the pin circuit module for continuous sampling to obtain the sampling result data for analyzing the change in PI. It is possible to calibrate the PI of different channels, and the internal calibration of the test machine is adopted, without the need for external instruments and meters, so as to avoid the introduction of new errors due to the access of external instruments and meters, thereby improving the calibration reliability and reducing the calibration cost. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Figure 1 It is a structural block diagram of a channel PI calibration device in one embodiment; Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the structure of a channel PI calibration device in one embodiment; Figure 3 It is a timing diagram of continuous signal sampling by a PI measurement module in one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the present application more clearly understood, the present application is further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present application and are not used to limit the present application.

[0017] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. The terms used herein in the specification of this application are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit this application.

[0018] It can be understood that the “connection” in the following embodiments should be understood as “electrical connection”, “communication connection”, etc. if the connected circuits, modules, units, etc. have electrical signals or data transmission between each other.

[0019] When used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "said / the" may also include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the terms "include / comprise" or "have" etc. specify the presence of stated features, wholes, methods, operations, components, parts or combinations thereof, but do not exclude the possibility of the presence or addition of one or more other features, wholes, methods, operations, components, parts or combinations thereof.

[0020] In one embodiment, Figure 1 As shown, a channel PI calibration device is provided, including a waveform control module 110, a PI control module 120, a transceiver module 130 and a PI measurement module 140. The waveform control module 110 is connected to the transceiver module 130, generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and sends it to the transceiver module 130; the PI control module 120 is connected to the transceiver module 130, configures the PI adjustment value for the transceiver module 130 according to the configuration command sent by the host computer; the transceiver module 130 is connected to the pin circuit module (Pin Electronics Driver / Comparator, PE) 200, adjusts the phase of the received transmission clock according to the configured PI adjustment value, and sends the square wave code data to the pin circuit module 200 according to the phase-adjusted clock; the PI measurement module 140 is connected to the pin circuit module 200, receives the signal returned by the pin circuit module 200 for continuous sampling, and obtains the sampling result data; the sampling result data is used to analyze the change amount of PI. The PI measurement module 140 may analyze the sampling result data to obtain the PI change and then return it to the host computer, or upload the sampling result data to the host computer, and the host computer analyzes the sampling result data to obtain the PI change. Figure 2 As shown, the channel PI calibration device also includes a protocol analysis module 150, which is connected to the pin circuit module 200 and performs register parameter configuration on the pin circuit module 200 according to the configuration command sent by the host computer.

[0021] Among them, the waveform control module 110, the PI control module 120, the transceiver module 130, the PI measurement module 140 and the protocol analysis module 150 can be set on the same FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). The test machine includes multiple test channels, and each test channel can be provided with a waveform control module 110, a PI control module 120, a transceiver module 130, a protocol analysis module 150 and a pin circuit module 200. The PI measurement module 140 can be configured for each test channel, or it can be shared by some or all test channels. The host computer can connect the waveform control module 110, the PI control module 120 and the protocol analysis module 150 through the HBUS bus, send configuration commands to respectively perform waveform configuration, PI adjustment value configuration and register parameter configuration of the pin circuit module 200, and receive the sampling result data returned by the PI measurement module 140 to analyze and obtain the change amount of PI. The host computer only needs to send configuration commands and receive sampling result data, and PI calibration can be performed simultaneously between each test channel.

[0022] Specifically, Figure 2As shown, after the host computer sends the configuration command to the protocol parsing module 150 through the HBUS bus, the protocol parsing module 150 performs protocol parsing, restores the HBUS bus data into SPI (Serial Peripheral interface) bus data, and sends it to the register inside the pin circuit module 200 through the SPI interface to configure the comparison voltage, level mode and compare channel mode of the pin circuit module 200.

[0023] In one embodiment, the waveform control module 110 generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and stores it in the internal cache unit, and after receiving the sending command sent by the host computer, the square wave code data in the internal cache unit is sent to the transceiver module 130; the sending command is the host computer sending a configuration command to the PI control module 120, which configures the PI adjustment value of the transceiver module 130 and then sends it.

[0024] Specifically, the internal cache unit may be a FIFO (First In First Out) unit or other storage unit. The host computer sends a configuration command through the HBUS bus, so that the waveform control module 110 generates square wave pattern data and stores it in the internal FIFO unit. The host computer sends a configuration command to the PI control module 120 through the HBUS bus again, and controls the PI control module 120 to configure the adjustment value of the phase regulator in the transceiver module 130 (the PI adjustment value is 0 under normal circumstances). Finally, the host computer sends a transmission command to the waveform control module 110 through the HUBS bus, and sends the square wave pattern data in the FIFO unit to the transceiver module 130.

[0025] The transceiver module 130 may specifically be a gigabit transceiver. After configuring the PI adjustment value, the transceiver module 130 may perform phase-locked loop processing on the connected transmission clock, perform phase adjustment on the clock after the phase-locked loop processing according to the PI adjustment value, or directly perform phase adjustment on the connected transmission clock according to the PI adjustment value. After the transceiver module 130 performs parallel-to-serial conversion on the square wave code data according to the phase-adjusted clock, it outputs a differential signal to the pin circuit module 200. After the pin circuit module 200 converts the received differential signal into a single-ended signal, it performs voltage comparison on the single-ended signal according to the configured comparison voltage, and then compares the comparison result signal through the compare channel according to the configured register parameters, converts the square wave signal obtained by the comparison into a differential signal, and returns it to the PI measurement module 140 through the LVDS (Low-Voltage Differential Signaling) interface. After the square wave code data sent by the transceiver module 130 arrives at the pin circuit module 200, it is not sent outward, but looped back to the PI measurement module 140 in the FPGA for data sampling.

[0026] Furthermore, the PI measurement module 140 converts the differential signal returned by the pin circuit module 200 into a single-ended signal, performs multi-level sampling on the single-ended signal according to the sampling clock and starts timing according to the reference clock, generates a rising edge according to the continuously sampled two-level signal, and stops sampling after the timing reaches the set sampling preset value, and counts the number of rising edges collected to obtain the sampling value; wherein, the change in PI is calculated based on the sampling value, the period of the sampling clock and the sampling preset value.

[0027] Specifically, the PI measurement module 140 can access the differential signal through the internal IBUFDS (input buffer) primitive block to convert it into a single-ended signal, and then use the sampling clock to continuously perform multi-stage sampling and start timing according to the reference clock, use each adjacent two-stage signal to generate a rising edge, and stop sampling after the timing reaches the set sampling preset value, and count the number of rising edges collected to obtain the sampling value, which is uploaded to the host computer as the sampling result data. The frequencies of the sampling clock and the reference clock are not unique. For example, the sampling clock can be a 400M clock, and the reference clock can be a 200M clock. The reference clock can be the same as or different from the sending clock used by the transceiver module 130. In this embodiment, the signals obtained by multi-stage sampling are all rectangular wave signals. The PI measurement module 140 samples the rising edge of the rectangular wave signal of the first stage according to the sampling clock, and counts according to the reference clock at the same time. When the count according to the reference clock reaches the sampling preset value, the sampling according to the sampling clock is stopped to determine the sampling value.

[0028] Furthermore, the PI measurement module 140 performs AND processing on the non-signal of the latter signal and the previous signal in the two-level signal of the non-first level continuous sampling to obtain a rising edge. Figure 3 As shown, the PI measurement module 140 continuously performs multi-level sampling according to the sampling clock. In order to avoid interference with signal acquisition due to fluctuations in the first-level signal, starting from the second-level signal, the non-signal of the latter-level signal in each adjacent two-level signal is processed with the previous-level signal to obtain the rising edge of the signal. The PI measurement module 140 stops signal acquisition after the reference clock count reaches the preset sampling value (for example, 20,000 times), and uploads the number of rising edges of the collected signal to the host computer as the sampling value to calculate the change in PI. It can be understood that in other embodiments, the PI measurement module 140 can also directly calculate the change in PI based on the sampling value and then upload it to the host computer. Specifically, the change in PI, that is, the phase change in each PI adjustment, is calculated as follows:

[0029] For example, the transceiver module 130 sends a 150M square wave, and the actual transceiver module 130 rate is 4.8G. After continuously configuring the PI adjustment value to 1, the 150M square wave becomes a 149.96345M square wave, and the adjusted period parameter undergoes a slight change. If the slight change is amplified after sampling 20,000 times, the amplified amount will be divided by 20,000 times, so that the slight amount is averaged to obtain the PI change.

[0030] After calculating the change in PI once, the host computer can send a configuration command again to change the PI adjustment value configured in the transceiver module 130, and perform multiple PI calibrations on each test channel. For example, the PI adjustment value is configured to 1, 2, 3, ..., etc. in sequence, and the PI adjustment value is gradually changed to control the phase adjustment amplitude of the transceiver module 130. The PI measurement module 140 is used to perform continuous signal sampling under different PI adjustment values ​​to obtain the change corresponding to the new PI adjustment value, and finally the change corresponding to each PI adjustment value is determined.

[0031] In addition, the channel PI calibration device may also include a clock processing module, which is connected to the transceiver module 130 and the PI measurement module 140, receives an external initial clock signal for processing, outputs a sending clock to the transceiver module 130, and outputs a sampling clock and a reference clock to the PI measurement module 140. The clock processing module may be arranged in the FPGA or outside the FPGA. Specifically, the clock processing module may be connected to the waveform generation device, receive the initial clock signal sent by the waveform generation device, divide the initial clock signal, obtain the required different frequency clocks and send them to the transceiver module 130 and the PI measurement module 140.

[0032] In one embodiment, a channel PI calibration method is also provided, including: a waveform control module generates square wave code data according to a configuration command sent by a host computer and sends it to a transceiver module; a PI control module configures a PI adjustment value for the transceiver module according to the configuration command sent by the host computer; the transceiver module performs phase adjustment on a received transmission clock according to the configured PI adjustment value, and sends the square wave code data to a pin circuit module according to the phase-adjusted clock; a PI measurement module receives a signal returned by the pin circuit module and performs continuous sampling to obtain sampling result data; the sampling result data is used to analyze the change in PI.

[0033] In one embodiment, the method further includes: the waveform control module generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and stores it in the internal cache unit, and after receiving the sending command sent by the host computer, the square wave code data in the internal cache unit is sent to the transceiver module; the sending command is the host computer sending a configuration command to the PI control module, and the PI adjustment value is configured for the transceiver module and then sent.

[0034] In one embodiment, the method further includes: the transceiver module performs parallel-to-serial conversion on the square wave code data according to the phase-adjusted clock, and then outputs a differential signal to the pin circuit module.

[0035] In one embodiment, the method also includes: the PI measurement module converts the differential signal returned by the pin circuit module into a single-ended signal, performs multi-level sampling on the single-ended signal according to the sampling clock and starts timing according to the reference clock, generates a rising edge according to the continuously sampled two-level signal, stops sampling after the timing reaches a set sampling preset value, and counts the number of rising edges collected to obtain a sampling value; wherein the change in PI is calculated based on the sampling value, the period of the sampling clock and the sampling preset value.

[0036] In one embodiment, the method further includes: the PI measurement module performs AND processing on the non-signal of the latter stage signal and the previous stage signal in the two-stage continuously sampled signals other than the first stage to obtain a rising edge.

[0037] In one embodiment, the method further includes: a clock processing module receives an external initial clock signal for processing, outputs a transmission clock to the transceiver module, and outputs a sampling clock and a reference clock to the PI measurement module.

[0038] In one embodiment, the method further includes: the protocol parsing module performs register parameter configuration on the pin circuit module according to the configuration command sent by the host computer.

[0039] It can be understood that the specific embodiment of the above-mentioned channel PI calibration method has been explained in detail in the above-mentioned channel PI calibration device, which will not be repeated here.

[0040] In one embodiment, a test machine is also provided, including a host computer and the above-mentioned channel PI calibration device. The host computer can be, but is not limited to, various personal computers, laptops, smart phones, tablet computers and portable wearable devices, and the portable wearable devices can be smart watches, smart bracelets, head-mounted devices, etc. In addition, the test machine can also include a waveform generation device to provide an initial clock signal. The waveform generation device can specifically be a direct digital frequency synthesizer (Direct Digital Synthesizer, DDS), or an arbitrary waveform generator (Arbitrary Waveform Generator, AWG) or other devices.

[0041] The above-mentioned channel PI calibration device, method and test machine continuously configure the PI adjustment value to make the transmitted square wave code data undergo continuous phase changes, indicating that the signal period has changed, and amplifies the small changes through the changes in the continuous sampling period, and then accumulates the changes and divides them by the accumulated amount, and finally calculates the small phase changes of each PI adjustment. This solution has the following advantages: 1. Internal calibration is adopted, and no additional instruments are needed, which saves costs and avoids the introduction of new errors due to the access of instruments; 2. Fast calibration time, allowing multiple test channels to be calibrated together; 3. The calibration process is simple, only register configuration is required, and no auxiliary equipment such as other test boards or cards is required.

[0042] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0043] The above-mentioned embodiments only express several implementation methods of the present application, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the invention patent. It should be pointed out that, for a person of ordinary skill in the art, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the patent of the present application shall be subject to the attached claims.

Claims

1. A channel PI calibration device, characterized in that: include: The waveform control module is connected to the transceiver module, generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and sends it to the transceiver module; A PI control module, connected to the transceiver module, configures a PI adjustment value for the transceiver module according to a configuration command sent by a host computer; The transceiver module is connected to the pin circuit module, performs phase adjustment on the received transmission clock according to the configured PI adjustment value, and sends the square wave code data to the pin circuit module according to the phase-adjusted clock; The PI measurement module is connected to the pin circuit module, receives the signal returned by the pin circuit module for continuous sampling, and obtains sampling result data; the sampling result data is used to analyze the change amount of PI.

2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that The waveform control module generates square wave code data according to the configuration command sent by the host computer and stores it in the internal cache unit, and after receiving the sending command sent by the host computer, the square wave code data in the internal cache unit is sent to the transceiver module; the sending command is a configuration command sent by the host computer to the PI control module, and the PI adjustment value is configured for the transceiver module and then sent.

3. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that The transceiver module performs parallel-to-serial conversion on the square wave code data according to the phase-adjusted clock, and outputs a differential signal to the pin circuit module.

4. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that The PI measurement module converts the differential signal returned by the pin circuit module into a single-ended signal, performs multi-level sampling on the single-ended signal according to the sampling clock and starts timing according to the reference clock, generates a rising edge according to the continuously sampled two-level signal, stops sampling after the timing reaches a set sampling preset value, and counts the number of rising edges collected to obtain a sampling value; The change amount of PI is calculated according to the sampling value, the period of the sampling clock and the sampling preset value.

5. The device according to claim 4, characterized in that Also includes: The clock processing module is connected to the transceiver module and the PI measurement module, receives an external initial clock signal for processing, outputs the sending clock to the transceiver module, and outputs the sampling clock and the reference clock to the PI measurement module.

6. The device according to claim 4, characterized in that The PI measurement module performs AND processing on the non-signal of the latter-stage signal and the former-stage signal in the two-stage signals of the continuous sampling other than the first-stage signal to obtain a rising edge.

7. The device according to claim 4, characterized in that The calculation formula for the change in PI is: .

8. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that: Also includes: The protocol analysis module is connected to the pin circuit module and performs register parameter configuration on the pin circuit module according to the configuration command sent by the host computer.

9. The device according to claim 8, characterized in that The test machine comprises a plurality of test channels, each of which is provided with the waveform control module, the PI control module, the transceiver module, the PI measurement module, the protocol analysis module and the pin circuit module.

10. A testing machine, characterized in that: It comprises a host computer and the channel PI calibration device according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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