NORTH READING, Mass., 18 Aug. 2008. Engineers at Teradyne, Inc. announced that Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. in Icheon-si, Kyoungki-do Korea, has launched the production of their first CMOS image sensor using the new Teradyne IP750Ex test system for wafer testing.

The IP750Ex is an extension of Teradyne's J750 platform, which has more than 2,800 systems installed worldwide. It is designed specifically for image sensor test, and can be easily upgraded from its predecessor systems, the IP750 and IP750EP (EMP) which have more than 730 testers installed worldwide, Teradyne officials say. Multiple customers are already using the IP750Ex in production, achieving lower cost-of-test with higher parallel testing and improved total test time capability, company officials say.

The IP750Ex is designed to cover next-generation complex devices with speeds of 200MHz and as many as 32M pixels, by providing 32 sites of parallel test, centralized digital signal processing (DSP) architecture with Infiniband data transfer for higher throughput, system-on-ship testing capability, and an analog option for CCD or DSLR testing.

"It's exciting to launch the IP750Ex with such clear differentiators that make a real difference on the test floor," says Hirofumi Adachi, product manager at Teradyne. "We've designed an image sensor test system with a dual core CPU and per site DSP architecture with true parallel data processing test flow, combined with 10Gbps data transfer per site, to provide parallel test capability for up to 32 sites to ensure our customers the lowest cost of test per site. Using the J750 test head, IP750Ex provides a small footprint, yet it delivers powerful technical and performance advantages that will serve test needs now and well into the future."

The IP750 series achieves superior performance and low test cost with high throughput, with as many as 32 sites in parallel, broad device coverage for low to high speed CCD and CMOS sensors, analog, and digital capture, and is fully integrated with an internal illuminator and external illuminators from major illuminator suppliers.