September, 2022


www.us-tech.com


Mission-Critical FPGAs: U.S. National Defense “Painted into a Corner”


Continued from page 55


demic, travel by DLA employees to conduct facility audits was shelved. Due to a growing back- log of unfulfilled audits for the entire supply chain, it will prob- ably take years for DLA to con- duct QML-38535 audits and to certify subcontractors for column attachment.


Consequences


The transfer of ownership of the sole column attachment sub- contractor to a hostile foreign player, for example, could sudden- ly put into motion a series of unin- tended consequences for the entire defense and aerospace sup-


Advantest Adds System Level IC


Testing SAN JOSE, CA — Advantest Corporation has installed its first enhanced T5851-STM16G tester capable of nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) system-level test coverage at a major manufacturer of IC memory devices. Advantest is now able to address the growing market for testing NVMe solid- state drives (SSDs) using ball-grid arrays (BGAs).


Over the next five years, the automotive market is expected to become the largest consumer of semiconductor devices — sur- passing 5G communications and high-performance computing, today’s leading market drivers. A key contributor to that growth is escalating demand for NVMe BGA SSD devices, which are crucial in advanced driver-assistance sys- tems (ADAS). To develop and eco- nomically mass produce these key NAND Flash SSD devices, memo- ry manufacturers worldwide need a highly reliable, cost-efficient test solution.


Designed to perform system- level testing of NVMe BGA SSDs, the T5851-STM16G tester is ideally suited for evaluating any generation of BGA SSDs in either an engineering environ- ment or a high-volume produc- tion site. The highly versatile platform can handle devices with multiple protocols, including NVMe, UFS and PCIe, at speeds up to 16 Gb/s.


The system’s modular, tester-per-DUT architecture sup- ports test flows required for sys- tem-level testing of up to 768 devices simultaneously. Contact: Advantest America,


Inc., 3061 Zanker Road, San Jose, CA 95134  408-456-3600 Web: www.advantest.com


See at SMTA Guadalajara, Booth 520


ply chain. For any number of rea- sons, an unfriendly acquirer may downscale production, disrupt a level playing field by selectively favoring certain customers, move the facility overseas or choose to completely stop offering column attachment services.


There may be no remedy assuring continuity if such a sce- nario takes place. Historically monopoly suppliers could actual- ly do the following: increase prices at will; relocate the facili- ty; scale back production levels;


shut down operations; and dis- rupt a level playing field. This production choke point could disrupt delivery of FPGA devices to thousands of down- stream customers involved in sup- porting National Defense efforts. No “Plan B” exists. A natural dis- aster or sale of the single source into unfriendly hands could elimi- nate America’s only subcontractor of solder columns serving a multi- billion dollar industry. Measures should be taken now by govern- ment and industry to avoid a sud-


den shortage of mission critical FPGA components to keep warfighters flying. Affirmative steps to elevate the priority in securing and qualifying a second source capability to attach solder columns should be a top priority, rather than waiting for disaster to strike.


Contact: TopLine Corp., 95 Highway 22 W, Milledgeville, GA 31061  800-776-9888 E-mail: sales@topline.tv Web: www.topline.tv 


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