LifeTest^© Software

The LifeTest ^© software is an application created by Accel-RF Corporation (ARF) for controlling the AARTS test systems.  It is a Graphical User Interface for performing all of the functions required to perform a variety of life testing paradigms:

1) Calibration - RF, DC, and Thermal calibrations are performed using techniques developed by ARF for maximizing accuracy of the system measurements.  Simple step-by-step instructions guide the user through the process of calibrating the various parameters.  DC and temperature measurements support the ability to calibrate to external metrology-grade standards.  This allows, for instance, the temperature calibration to take into account the thermal gradient of the user's mounting system.

2) System Configuration - User defined items, such as data storage locations, color schemes, etc. are easily customized using the LifeTest interface.

3) Manual Control - The EditLevels interface allows the user to turn ON and control DC, RF, and thermal stimulus to verify device funtionality under manual control.

4) AutoStart Operation - While the user could control everything in a manual fashion, the software also provide two advanced levels of automation.  The first level of automation, referred to as AutoStart mode, performs the typical steps an operator might perform to get a device biased up at temperature and ready for the life test run, but automatically.  For instance, a Pre-RF DC level (such as a pinched off condition) might be set first, then RF levels set, followed by a Post-RF DC level operation to set an active bias.  Married into that process would be some thermal management that allows the device to be brought to temperature and biased up in a controlled fashion.

5) AutoSequencing - A second level of automation, known as AutoSequencing, provides an exremely powerful and flexible method for controlling a variety of complex test sequences.  For instance, Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer (SPA) or RF Gain-Compression sweeps may be performed automatically at user-defined intervals set into an infinte loop, allowing control data to be captured during the elapsed time aging process.

6) Life Test Monitoring - The LifeTest monitor provides a quick and intuitive way to perform and monitor life test runs.  It supports numerous operating paradigms for controlling the life testing process, from manual to fully automated control.  A variety of views are available for quickly checking the status of a device run.

7) Aggregate Analysis Tools - The AARTS system provides the user the ability to capture data in a very robust flexible manner.  However, that is only half the job. The next task is creating a way to effectively manage the plethora of data that is collected.  ARF software designers worked closely with a niumber of "power user" customers to find out how a variety of users prefer to extract and process data.  We then created a very flexible framework that allows the user to quickly and effectively extract and process data.  Further, ARF has incorporated standard failure models (e.g. Lognormal, Weibull, and Exponential) so that we can create the failure and Arrhenius plot as well as calculate Activation Energy values directly from the LifeTest data.