Storage Technology Corporation

Megatest Corporation

Stanley P Mros

Kevin J Jenkins

Jan Brian Wilstrup

Transmission between two cards is disabled if power is not supplied to one of the cards. The system includes a first card generating a first power signal based on power applied to the first card. A second card, in communication with the first card, generates a second power signal based on power applied to the second card. A transmitter on the first card transmits to a receiver on the second card. The transmitter is disabled from transmitting based on the second power signal and the receiver is disabled from receiving based on the first power signal.

Hot-swappable high speed point-to-point interface

A hot-swappable, point-to-point connection between a high speed transmitter on a transmitter card and a high speed receiver on a receiver card is provided. The transmitter card and the receiver card can be inserted into a backplane, the backplane forming the connection between the transmitter and the receiver. The system includes a power indicator on the transmitter card and the receiver card, with each power indicator asserting a power signal to respective switch control inputs on the transmitter and receiver cards when the respective cards are inserted into the backplane. The assertion or unassertion of a power signal to the control inputs allows for the disabling of the receiver when the transmitter is not connected to the backplane and the disabling of the transmitter when the receiver is not connected to the backplane, thereby preventing transmitter output EMI and ringing and receiver input oscillation.

A power supply for testing an integrated circuit includes a source voltage input terminal for receiving an input voltage. The power supply serves as both a DUT active power supply and an IDDQ measurement circuit, without the need for switching between separate DUT active power supply and IDDQ measurement circuits. In one embodiment, a current source output driver includes a diode across a current sensing resistor inside a feedback loop. This minimizes VDD changes when the DUT demands transient current, such as when loading IDDQ test vectors. Moreover, with decreased transient changes in VDD, dielectric absorption effects of a decoupling capacitor are reduced.

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Roseville, MN, United States of America

Stanley P Mros