Embedded instrumentation: Importance and adoption in T&M marketplace

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: Solutions for validating and testing current and future generations of chips, PCBs and systems are evolving in reaction to a host of challenges arising from increasing complexities, greater densities and higher speeds. As a result, an approach known as "embedded instrumentation" is projected to be the future of chip, board and system testing.

Frost & Sullivan recently published a white paper, Embedded Instrumentation: Its Importance and Adoption in the Test & Measurement Marketplace, that explores this topic by analyzing the concept of embedded instrumentation and its importance, describing the market trends driving its adoption, and considering the new market entrants in this emerging field.

"The need for test and measurement (T&M) equipment is pervasive for any type of electronic system in virtually all end-user applications," said Frost & Sullivan Measurement & Instrumentation Industry Manager Sujan Sami.

"With board and chip complexity increasing rapidly, it is extremely critical to test for the proper functionality of both the chips themselves and the PCBs where they have been installed. For decades now, traditional external instruments have been used to collect and analyze test data. However, it is presently becoming more difficult to use these older types of instruments. The future is about software-based T&M systems and, more generally, embedded instrumentation."

Embedded instrumentation is a concept of entrenching and enhancing the capabilities of traditional external test equipment onto chips as an additional resource. Software validation and test tools then access the embedded instrumentation to test chips, circuit boards and systems.

For example, most high-speed serial I/O devices today have built-in test intellectual property (IP) which is used during the chip validation stage. With the proper software tools, this IP can be used throughout the product life cycle. It might, for instance, test PCB signal integrity during prototype board test and volume manufacturing.

According to Sami: "Since the invention of the integrated circuit, the electronics hardware industry has evolved according to Moore's law, which asserts that the number of transistors on chips will double every two years. In such a scenario, it is necessary to keep pace with this trend and develop instruments for debugging and testing chips and circuit boards that are faster, denser and more complex every year. Embedded instrumentation offers an effective solution."