BPM Microsystems, NAND Flash, and Device Programmers blog

BPM Microsystems Wins 2009 Service Excellence Award

HOUSTON — March 31, 2009 — BPM Microsystems, a leading supplier of device programming systems worldwide, announces that it has been awarded a 2009 Circuits Assembly Service Excellence Award in the category of Electronics Suppliers — Device Programming Equipment for its outstanding customer ratings, as judged by BPM Microsystems’ own customers.

Circuits Assembly Editor-in-Chief Mike Buetow presented the award to BPM during a Monday, March 30, 2009 reception that took place at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center before the start of APEX.

The 17th annual Service Excellence Awards present awards to EMS providers, and equipment and software suppliers. The awards honor companies in the manufacturing industry that exceed expectations in customer service.

For the awards in the Equipment Suppliers and Software Suppliers categories, companies are rated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability; ease of use; responsiveness; technology; and value for price.

See BPM Highlight Flashstream Programming System at APEX 2009

HOUSTON — March 11, 2009 — BPM announces that it will exhibit its manual Flas hstream Flash Vector Programming System in booth 1274 at the upcoming APEX 2009 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009 in Las Vegas.

Flashstream offers the fastest flash programming of NAND and NOR flash memory at speeds as low as 2.5 percent over theoretical programming minimum. This industry leading speed is due to the creation of a proprietary co-processor technology developed by BPM called Vector Engine. This technology uses a proprietary co-processor design to hardware accelerate flash memory waveforms during the programming cycle. Faster speeds are achieved through synchronous operations that eliminate the dead times when the DUT waits on the programmer. The result is programming near the theoretical limits of the silicon design — the faster the device, the faster the device is programmed.

Designed for high-density flash, the Flashstream programs NAND and NOR Flash up to 32 Gb (gigabit) and has upgradeable RAM for future densities. It comes standard with 4191 Mb (32.7 Gb) memory per site that is upgradeable to handle future densities and communicates with USB 2.0 between the host PC and programmer. The programmer also includes bad block replacement scheme for NAND and low voltage support. A four-socket manual system, Flashstream is BPM’s first dedicated hardware design for flash memories, which results in a radical improvement in speed when compared to competitive flash programmers.

As an additional benefit, multiple Flashstream units can be connected to one computer to run the same programming job in concurrent programming™ mode. Single units can be mechanically connected. Also, a LED display identifies the programmer number that corresponds to software instructions.

Featuring the capability to program with one, two, three or four socket cards, the Flashstream offers the only single socket card purchase for first article qualification. It is easy to remove and stores with little space. Additionally, it includes Active, Pass and Fail LED status indicators on each individual socket card, as well as the option of Auto-start on continuity check.

Flashstream will significantly help the production of embedded designs in electronic products by reducing ramp to volume production fears for products that integrate high-density flash memory such as wireless devices, navigation electronics and personal music systems. Now, it enables new applications, especially for very large patterns.

Additionally, these systems can leave the factory with preloaded data or content instead of blank memory.

The Flashstream programmer has the capacity to support NAND and NOR flash memory devices as well as EPROMs. New device requests will be taken for Flashstream and distributed to all Flashstream customers under software contract.

The Flashstream’s significant speed reduces labor costs as well as the number of machines needed to perform the same function. The programmer is ready for both today’s and tomorrow’s most demanding flash devices.

Download Whitepaper: Understanding NAND Flash Factory Programming

BPM Microsystems is offering a FREE download on the highly anticipated whitepaper from our lead engineers on Understanding NAND Flash Factory Programming.

Automated Programmers Drastically Improved

HOUSTON — October 17, 2008 — BPM Microsystems announces that its 3000 and 4000 series autohandlers have undergone various improvements in 2008. First developed in 1995 to meet the industry’s need of fast, medium to high-volume production programming, the company's automated systems have seen enhancements over the years such as speed increase, support for high density devices, and new input and output media.

Teach times and user interaction have been significantly reduced with two added features to the autohandler software. When teaching multi-socket socket modules, such as the FX4™, only one target device is required to teach all sockets on the programmer site. Users can also quickly validate and adjust previously taught sockets using only one target device.

In addition, users now have the option to automate the removal of target devices during an all programmer site teach. This feature uses the Pick-and-Place to extract a target device from the programmer site and place the device into a destination peripheral after the teach session has concluded. Previous software versions required the user to manually remove the device from the site after teaching.

The TS-1500™ tray stacker now supports Low Profile and custom trays to accommodate different tray heights. When selecting a tray type in BPWin, “Low Profile Tray” would typically be used for trays containing QFN or MLF packages. For trays that do not match the predefined settings, users can select “Custom Tray” to manually enter the tray settings.

Another added feature allows users to select the first pocket containing a device of a partially filled input tray with the “Specify First Pocket on Input Tray” option. Users select the row and column of the first pocket. The Pick-and-Place begins to pick the device from this specified location. All pockets before this location are skipped.

A new diagnostic has been implemented to test the image quality of the Cyber-Optics® Laser Align Camera. Various image quality parameters are inspected on the camera to ensure that they are within maximum and minimum tolerance. If the camera does not meet these tolerances, the user will be presented with a camera cleaning procedure. The test automatically runs at initialization and at the beginning of a job.

Additional improvements on the automated handlers will be implemented in BPWin version 4.80, which is scheduled for release on November 11, 2008. New features can be found in the software release notes located under the Help menu of the BPWin software.

All automated customers with a current software support contract can benefit from the latest improvements by downloading the newest version of software through BPM Microsystems’ Web site.

For more information on BPM’s automated product line visit http://www.bpmmicro.com.

2008 Global Technology Award Winner: BPM’s Flash Programming System

HOUSTON — August 19, 2008 — BPM announces that it has been awarded a Global Technology Award in the category of Programming for its Flashstream Flash Vector Programming System.

The award was presented by Global SMT & Packaging Magazine’s Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Trevor Galbraith during a Tuesday, August 19, 2008 ceremony that took place during the SMTA International exhibition and conference in Orlando, FL.

Download: Factory Pre-programming Solutions for NAND Flash Devices

Download BPM Microsystems' 2008 Flash Memory Summit's presentation on Download: Factory Pre-programming Solutions for NAND Flash Devices.

Leave any questions or comments below.  We welcome your feedback and count it very valuable.

BPM to Highlight Its Programming Technologies at SMTA International

HOUSTON — August 2008 — BPM Microsystems will display its latest manual Flashstream programming technology, its Helix automated device programmer, as well as its enhanced generation device programmer family in booth 717 at the upcoming SMTA International exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place August 19-20, 2008 in Orlando, FL.

BPM Microsystems Improves Flash Chip Programmer - Flashstream

HOUSTON — July 2008 — BPM Microsystems announces that its Flashstream technology, which was first introduced in August 2007, has undergone many improvements since its original release.

These are the following improvements for the Flashstream.

Faster
Speed of the Flashstream technology has also incorporated utilization of cache-programming modes in select devices that has pushed the top speed of the Flashstream on NAND memory to over 8.23 MB/s during programming.  Flashstream has literally turned minutes into seconds in regards to the programming of flash memory for many of its users. 

Supported on multiple automated programming platforms
Flashstream technology is now available in multiple automated handling systems with throughputs of 1100 devices per hour and our popular Helix desktop handler.

Programs up to 32GB devices in one programming cycle (Q3 2008 release)
Flashstream will support memories up to 32GB by the end of 2008 and will be upgradeable, as future device densities become reality in the marketplace.

MLC NAND flash memory support
Multi-level cell memory architecture is the common in larger memory devices.

Managed NAND architecture like eSD/eMMC are now supported.
This includes devices such as Samsung MoviNAND, Micron e-MMC, and Sandisk iNAND.

Unique support for Samsung MoviNAND flash memory
BPM has the only mass production solution for Samsung MoviNAND devices

New bad block management options
90% of “standard” bad block management schemes in the market place can be addressed without the need for customization by BPM.  BPM does not charge for its NAND bad block options.

Support for standard and complex serialization schemes on each socket
Application of a unique serial number embedded during the programming cycle is an important tracking tool during manufacturing. 

Auto continuity enabled with less than 4 socket cards installed (estimated Q3 2008 release)

Now supports over 800 NAND, NOR and EEPROM memory devices from 12 different manufacturers. 
Support for new devices can be requested at the time of the equipment purchase.

Address-data multiplexed NOR devices (A/D MUX) support (estimated Q4 2008 release)
A special type of NOR flash memory that is gaining popularity in wireless applications

Device programmer manufacturer, BPM Microsystems, appoints Esman Elektronik as Turkey Distributor

HOUSTON — June 30, 2008 — BPM announces that it has formally named Esman Elektronik AS as its distributor for Turkey. Esman will represent BPM Microsystems’ full line of device programming products throughout Turkey.

BPM Appoints Distributor for Eastern Europe

HOUSTON — June 25, 2008 — BPM is proud to announce that it has formally named Etek Europe Ltd. as its distributor for Eastern Europe including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. Etek Europe Ltd. will represent BPM Microsystems’ full line of device programming products in these territories.