Description:
Many ATE test systems use
Pogo Pins to connect the load boards to the DUT boards.
These boards are typically outsourced to people who have
lot's of digital experience but very little RF experience.
This simple board was originally designed by one of those
places. Since the designed had no RF experience they did not
understand what kind of structure to use for the 50 ohm
traces and they had no idea of how to guarantee phase
matching between the outputs - this resulted in a poorly
functioning design that cost over $500 per board for the end
use customer.
In redesigning the board I
used a co-planer waveguide over ground structure for it's
low crosstalk and excellent manufacturability - combined
with designing proper impedance matching for the Pogo pins
and the DUT connectors to insure > 25 dB return loss for
each path. Since the board was used as an I/O stimulus for
I/Q signals the phase of each path was also matched to
better than 0.3 degrees at 100 MHz.
The resulting board was
fabricated on the proper material for the frequency range
considered and cost $50.00 in quantity.
- DUT Boards for ATE
equipment with proper consideration of impedance, phase
matching and manufacturing costs.
- > 25 dB return loss
on all ports.
- > 50 dB port to port
isolation.
- RF network analyzer and
TDR verification of phase match and impedance
match.
- Low manufacturing
costs.
- 10:1 cost reduction for
the end use customer with better performance.
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