Flasher ATE

Flasher ATE is perfectly suited for high volume mass production environments. The modular system uses a communication main board at its heart, that distributes the commands received from an ATE, ICT or a similar automated production handler system to the programming modules. Each programming module can be set up with individual configurations and firmware. Flasher ATE is capable to program multiple devices in parallel, whether these devices are equal or part of a multi-device system, Flasher ATE can handle all production setups.

Main Features

• Gang Programming
• In-System Programmer (ISP)
• Ultra-fast programming
• Control interfaces for ATEs and similar production process handlers
• Switchable target power
• J-Flash and built-in FTP server for an easy setup
• Scalable solution with up to 10 individual channels
• Parallel channels, no demultiplexing required
• Functional isolation of each module
• Target supply voltage may be up to 15V

The Flasher ATE Gang Programmer is an in-circuit-programmer for high volume mass production. To accommodate for the special requirements of high volume production environments, the Gang Programmer can be mounted in 19" racks or be connected directly to an ATE. The interfaces to start and monitor the programming tasks have been designed with the implementer of the production system in mind.

The number of Flasher ATE programming modules per Flasher ATE mainboard can be scaled from 1 to 10 permitting the parallel programming of up to 10 target devices. The ultra-fast flash algorithms used by the Flasher ATE are the same industry leading and proven algorithms also found in SEGGER's family of J-Link debug probes and Flasher programming devices.

Device Under Test (DUT) Support
Production environments require more than just creating and programming. Once the production cycle is started, there are all kinds of verifications taking place. The target interfaces of the Flasher ATE Gang Programmer modules include a UART transceiver. This UART transceiver can be managed from the ATE or similar production handler devices via the connection with the Flasher ATE base board. Once it is activated, serial communication via pin 5 and pin 17 is mapped to an IP connection, so the ATE is able to communicate with the freshly programmed device without requiring additional hardware.

Remote Control of the Flasher ATE
The Flasher ATE can be remote controlled by automated test equipment without the need of a connection to a PC. Therefore the Gang Programmer is equipped with additional hardware control functions, which are connected to the SUBD9 male connector, normally used as a RS232 interface to PC. The adjacend diagrams show the internal remote control circuitry of Flasher.

As the remote control circuit only allows limited control of the flash process (trigger all modules at once), the preferred method to control the Flasher ATE is either the RS232 interface or a telnet shell via ethernet. This command line interface allows a detailed control of the flash process of each module as well as putting each module into the UART transceiver mode mentioned above.

Built-in web server
The built-in web server presents many data of the Flasher ATE for a quick overview of the current operation or for fast trouble shooting.

The web server provides information about:

• the installed firmware version
• the hardware version
• the power consumption
• the IP configuration
• the network load
• current operation and status.

Supported Devices
The Flasher ATE supports a wide range of CPU cores and an even wider range of different devices from various vendors. On this page, an overview of all supported CPU cores as well as devices for which flash programming is supported, is given.

Supported CPU Cores
The following CPU cores are currently supported by the Flasher ATE:

• ARM-7, -9, -11
• Cortex-M0, -M0+, -M1, -M3, -M4, -M7, -M23, -M33
  
• AVR Mega (*1)
• e200z0 (PowerPC)
• MSP4301
• PIC161
  
• Renesas RX610, -621, -62G, -62N, -62T
• Renesas RL78 (*1)
  
• STM8 (*1)

*1) Supported via Universal Flash Loader.

Supported Devices

Supported SPI flashes
The Flasher ATE does also support download into SPIFI (SPI Flash Interface) flashes in case they are memory mapped readable through the CPU (called SPIFI support on most targets).

In addition direct programing of SPI flashes without any CPU in between is implemented in the Flasher ATE firmware, too. The following SPI flashes are currently supported by the Flasher ATE.

Flasher-ATE controller + 10 Flashers