Cost of Test Issues for RF SIP Circuits

Ken Harvey, Teradyne

Continued integration of mobile handset components is driving integration of RF transceivers, passives and power amplifiers with analog/digital baseband, memory, and power management die. The functionality of the handset is also changing: applications process are being added and mutiband "world phones" are also becoming multi-standard, GSM/EDGE/UMTS capable. Integration of digital, power management and RF PAs present significant challenges to RFSIP test costs that legacy RF testers were not designed to manage economically. This paper explores the technical and economic cost drivers inherent in these RFSIP trends and recommends strategic requirements to manage for superior cost reduction trajectories.

Ken Harvey is responsible for RF Product Line Architecture at Teradyne, where he has served consulting and management roles since 2002. Mr. Harvey's twenty years of RF/microwave experience includes product development and business management roles for R&D, manufacturing and field maintenance applications of commercial and military instrumentation through millimeterwave frequencies. He previously served as President and CEO of Modulation Instruments, Inc., a manufacturer of RF instrumentation for benchtop R&D applications, until the sale of the company to Credence Systems in 2000. Mr. Harvey is currently a member of the board of directors and is chairman of the audit committee of Gigatronics, Inc., a manufacturer of microwave components and commercial and military microwave instrumentation.