Satellite designers at the Hughes Space and Communications Co. (HSC) in Los Angeles needed a design and development tool to help them design and test a 0.25-micron complex digital signal processing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for the new Hughes Geomobile mobile telephone satellite.
Hughes designers, who needed a multi-million-gate reconfigurable complex ASIC to tailor the satellite payload rapidly to meet each service provider`s needs, found their solution with the icBIST tool from LogicVision Inc. of San Jose, Calif.
Hughes officials are using the icBIST tool together with the SA-12 0.25-micron process technology from IBM Corp.
"Built-in self-test is essential for rapid assembly and test of advanced DSP-based satellites," explains Brian Clebowicz, manager of the Hughes Digital Electronics Operation. "The complexity of our mega-gate designs makes previous test approaches impractical.
"HSC requires a highly automated, hierarchical test solution that provides at-speed testing with high fault coverage, which is why we chose icBIST from LogicVision," Clebowicz continues. "The ability to self-test using a simple initiation sequence and a short test signature, rather than millions of test vectors, makes it easy to employ at all levels of satellite testing."
The Hughes Geomobile satellites with 12.25-meter deployable reflector, feature on-board digital signal processing, circuit switching, and digital beamforming. They provide mobile telephone service.
The tool icBIST addresses timing issues such as logic-at-speed testing across clock domains. Hughes designers can use the icBIST embedded automatic test equipment to test ASICs, boards, and digital communications systems. - J.K.
For more information on icBIST, contact LogicVision by phone at 408-453-0146, by fax at 408-467-1180, by mail at 101 Metro Drive, Third Floor, San Jose, Calif., 95110, by e-mail at [email protected], or on the World Wide Web at http://www. logicvision.com/.
