"This level of testing would typically not be feasible by a university acting on its own. It’s a significant productivity enhancement. Students will become familiar with testing equipment and be better prepared for industry," Barge said.
Over the next two years, the testing collaboratory will evolve to include 21 universities that are conducting research in microsystems and related fields. Four specialized test laboratories will host the test equipment: the advanced photonics lab at Queen’s University in Waterloo, Ont.; the advanced mixed-signal lab at McGill University in Montreal; the advanced digital systems lab at the University of Toronto; and the advanced RF lab at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
Funding for the collaboratory comes from government agencies at various levels. CMC is managing a $9.3 million award from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and a $6.9 million award from the Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT) through Queen’s University. An additional $1.2 million from the Government of Québec and $500,000 from the Government of Manitoba supplement these awards.
This funding builds upon earlier investments from long-term investors such as the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), along with CFI and Ontario Innovation Trust. Additional funds from other government sources and industry augment the CFI award, for a total project value of over $23 million.
CMC is a non-profit corporation that provides microsystems researchers with industry-calibre design resources, access to state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies, and support services. In the current period 2000-2005, CMC directs a national program valued at $125 million.
At the University of Toronto:
- Agilent 93000 SOC tester:
- 480 channels @ 600 megavectors per second extendable to 1.2 gigavectors per second
- 3 channels of RF @ 6 GHz with modulation/demodulation and IQ measurement
- 8 programmable power supplies
- Dual clock domains
- Credence/IMS Engineering tester:
- 256 channels @ 500 megavectors per second
- 6 programmable power supplies
- multi-user end-to-end digital test emulation software
- 20 Gigasample per second digital storage scope
