HOUSTON — BPM Microsystems, a leading supplier of device programming systems worldwide, announces it will showcase the Flashstream Flash Vector Programming System, together with the automated Helix tabletop handling system on distributor Kasion Automation Limited (KAL) stand 1D15 - at the upcoming NEPCON China/EMT China 2008 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place April 8-11, 2008 in Shanghai, PR China.

Winner of the Global Technology Award, in the category of Device Programming, the Flashstream technology was first introduced as a manual programming product in 2007 and offers the fastest flash programming of NAND and NOR flash memory on the market today. 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. Flashstream has the ability to program four 1Gb NAND flash memory devices in 19.8 seconds, which is 9 times faster than any other programmer on the market today. 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.

Flash memory is the single largest growth sector in the Semiconductor industry for several years. Last year, 5 billion units of flash memory were used in the electronics industry with a future forecasted per year growth rate of 18 percent. Flashstream will contribute to the production of flash memory rich devices that require preloading during the manufacturing process of electronic products.

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.

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.

BPM Helix tabletop handling system

BPM Microsystems will also be showcasing the automated BPM Helix tabletop handling system called HelixFS. Rated at a delivery of 800 devices per hour, the HelixFS gives customers the option to utilize Flashstream sites or purchase and use BPM’s current universal site technology that supports over 25,000 device part numbers. The HelixFS has the ability to switch between the dedicated flash site and universal sites, to adapt to production needs.

“Combining these two technologies gives the 3000FS automated flash programmer the ability to produce a fully programmed 512Mb NAND Flash memory device every 3.4 seconds or 1050 devices in an hour” says Tim Nolte, Director of Global Marketing.

“Our customers will get the benefit of a robust device handling solution combined with Flashstream’s speed to meet the challenges of large flash memory programming in electronics manufacturing.”