From Central Power to Distributed Power Architecture in ATE

Automated Test Equipment (ATE) historically has been built with a centralized power architecture. Silver boxes provided a limited number of standardized voltage supplies, which were then routed to individual test cards. This arrangement was effective and convenient, as instrument card circuits did not require significant power levels: most voltages were linearly regulated from the closest available supply voltage, which was routed to each card from the centralized silver box power supply. Moreover, early DC-DC converters were expensive, bulky, noisy, and unfamiliar to power designers.