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MSC1210Y5: Fail programming flash memory in this IC when using serial mode.

Part Number: MSC1210Y5

Our company used this part in our instruments for more than 10 years without any problem in the past.  Recently, at the beginning of 2016, we received a batch of assemblies form the assembly house, which failed 100% when we tried to program the flash inside this IC.  The vendor contacted TI and was told that this IC manufactured in 2015 between March to August had quality issue that would make the IC fail to be programmed.  Since then, we have requested the assembly house to purchase IC with date code after the afore-mentioned bad quality window.  However, we still have excessive failure rate (> 50%) on this part.  We even bought this IC through Digikey/Mouser ourselves and replaced the bad IC on the board.  The result is 12 failed out of a total of 21 MSC1210Y5 replaced on the circuit board.

We would like TI to revisit the quality/performance of this part.  Has there been any changes in operation or specification of this part that we need to know?  If anyone also uses this chip, I would appreciate that he/she shares the experience with us.

Thank you very much.

  • Hi Tu,

    Let's back up a bit.  The issue that you are referring to is incorrect as to what you were told.  There may have been some confusion by the distributer.  The actual issue was related to an improperly trimmed (programmed) reference due to a change in our final test equipment.  For many customers this was no issue at all. The improper trimming did relate to the programming of the flash contents of the configuration register at final test, but does not relate to normal flash operations when reading or writing the user flash.  TI offered to rescreen devices affected from this time period.  So, all other operations of the device should have worked normally.

    Which method are you using for programming, serial or parallel?  Outside of replacing devices, what troubleshooting methods have you used to verify communication?  How are you determining the devices are not programmed?  Have you checked the clock source?  If a crystal is used, sometimes the oscillator does not start due to improper cap loading.  Can you send me your schematic?

    Best regards,

    Bob B

  • Thank you for the quick response. I would like to add some more information about the failure of the assembly we got from the vendor. We had a total of 119 assemblies that all failed to be programmed. We programmed the chip using serial mode via the serial port 0. All failures happened half-way during download. The programming just stopped and stated "fail". It would be very unusual for a large quantity of boards to fail in the same fashion.
    Anyway, I will double check the recent failed board and look at clock. We used a clock oscillator 11.0592 MHz. How do I upload the schematic to you?

    Best regards,
    Tu Chau
  • Hi Tu Chao,

    I agree that it is unusual for that many failures.  How many bytes is the file you are trying to download?  Did you issue a mass erase prior to programming?  What program are you using as your downloader (are you using the TI downloader, console or some other programming tool/method?)  What are the HWCR settings?

    You can reply using the rich text format and attach a file (or a zip for more than one file) or you can click on my name and start a private conversation and attach a file or zip of files in the message.

    Best regards,

    Bob B