Electronics Testing software

Electronic testing is the process whereby electronic assemblies, i.e. integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, backplanes, power supplies and multi-wire boards, etc. are verified as functioning correctly.This includes their ability to continue working at the extremes of voltage, temperature and frequency or bit-rate.The process of testing, as opposed to designing, is usually under software control.The complexity of the circuits under test and the production rates required have pretty much taken the test technician out of the loop and put computer power in his/her place.Principle vendors of automated Testing Equipment (ATE) provide the software to run on their systems.This type of software is based on industry-wide standards. Free electronic testing trials are usually available with the purchase of equipment from suppliers such as Agilent, or suppliers of virtual testing solutions such as Virtual Process.

The collection of instruments, computer power and switching circuits needed to perform the testing are usually assembled together as a unit, along with the interface testing adapter (ITA) that connects the device under test (DUT) to the equipment performing the test.The first level of testing, the PCB Testing Station insures that the basic foundation of the assembly, the printed circuit board, has all the connections and pathways inherent in the master artwork. The ITA might be a movable probe that injects a signal on various points and verifies the presence of that signal at all the connected points and its absence anywhere else.This exposes any ‘shorts’ or ‘opens’.More dense boards dictate a ‘bed of nails’ ITA, a grid of spring-loaded retractable contacts.Once the tested PCB’s have been populated with components and soldered, they move on to the Electronics Test Station, where more sophisticated tests are performed.

Electronic testing software provides valuable data for the intelligent control of the electronics manufacturing operation. Process variables in the PCB etching and production sub-system show up as failures in the bare-board test cycle on the PCB testing station. Defective components or placement errors are identified during the testing of populated boards. These ‘early warning’ signs are collected, analyzed and routed to the critical players by the QC Software programs as supplied by Noweco, Tuppas and others, that are part of the manufacturing enterprise system (MES) The net effect is to boost productivity.

Electronics testing software is an essential element the electronics manufacturing process. When fully integrated with Oracle or SAP electronics management software such as Management Enterprise Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning (MES/ERP), it gives the management immediate knowledge of the quality and productivity of their operation.