1.1 Architecture block diagram

The RIFLE-SE core has a modular architecture made of programmable units that can be programmed by the user PC through a high bandwidth connection between the RIFLE-SE and the PC or it can be programmed by an embedded dedicated RISC processor located inside the RIFLE-SE system itself. This architecture allows to share the tasks between the PC and the embedded processor in order to optimize the system resources without loosing programming flexibility.
The RIFLE-SE core is implemented by a 90-nm high performance FPGA and can be expanded by hardware IPs, allowing advanced specific customizations, or through a dedicated 1.2Gbps serial expansion bus.

The RIFLE-SE system is equipped with standard interfaces, like GPIB, to control supplementary instrumentations, like probers, handlers, ovens. Their control can be integrated into the measurement flow to perform very complex automatic tasks.




Figure 1 . RIFLE-SE architecture block diagram
(click to enlarge)

  • The Digital Sequencer unit drives/stores the digital signals of the Device Under Test (DUT). The unit works at 400MHz allowing a 2.5ns time resolution.

  • The Embedded Processor has a set of standard instructions (NOP, ADD, MOV, JMP, JNE, …) plus specific instructions to trigger and communicate with the other system units. The processor can, for example, trigger the sequencer which generates patterns and control signals for data generation/acquisition and synchronization.

  • The Address Generator unit has the capability to generate programmable digital sequences at 200MHz. It is made of three independent 32 bit counters with programmable frequency, increment and direction. Each counter output feeds a 3 stage pipeline block. The address generator can be used to update the 32 output address pins of the system or to update the 32 bits of the bidirectional data bus when it is used in multiplexed mode
  • The Event Detector unit has two identical independent programmable units that can detect events on input signals. Used in combination with a Timer/Counter unit, it can measure event occurencies, access times and time intervals.
  • The Clock Generator unit can generate a clock signal with programmable frequency and duty cycle.It has a time resolution of 1.25ns (800Mhz working frequency).
  • The PMU unit can force voltage/measure current or force current/measure voltage on the DUT data pins. The unit has 8 parallel independent channels multiplexed into 128 lines with 70Mhz sampling rate (14.3 ns resolution time) and current measurement precision down to ±5nA. Also the current/voltage transitory can be measured like in an oscilloscope view.
  • The PW0 unit can force voltage/measure current or force current/measure voltage on any pin of the DUT through a low parasitic switch matrix. The PW0 unit has a 80Mhz sampling rate and current measurement precision down to ±500nA. The current/voltage transitory can be measured like in an oscilloscope view.
  • The AWG unit has up to 16 independent fully arbitrary waveform generators, operating at up to 100Mhz (10ns time resolution) with 2.5ns rise time and voltage resolution down to 1mV.
  • The Serial link unit is a dedicated 1.2Gbps serial bus for system expansions. Through this high speed connection, new programmable units can be added to the RIFLE-SE core to extend its analog and digital resources without adding bandwidth bottlenecks.
  • An optional configuration is available for the RIFLE-SE which extends the number of its digital resources:
    - Up to 256 I/O
    - Up to 32 AWGs
    - Per byte programmable direction
    - PW0 connection on every pin (except data bus)
    - Independent programmable I/O voltage over different I/O banks

Thanks to its high performance analog and digital resources, RIFLE-SE can accurately evaluate the performance of any kind of non volatile memory device in very short times.

 

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