A functional test solution is developed, primarily within the hardware design environment, as a test vehicle for verifying that a PCB meets its design criteria. Once the design validation and prototyping test phases are complete, the test vehicle is transferred to the Test Engineering department. It is then used as a functional test platform to verify that manufactured products meet their performance specification and are ‘fit for purpose’ to be shipped to the customer. The functional test stage is the final PCB quality gate.
However, functional testers are a challenge because:
- Functional test program development is time consuming compared with structural test.
- It is extremely difficult to predict test coverage provided by a test program unless fault simulation has been undertaken.
- Fault diagnosis is either limited or in some cases non-existent, with the majority of tests simply providing a PASS/FAIL status.
ASTER is pleased to announce a revolutionary technology to eliminate functional test drawbacks: the integration of QuadView within National Instruments TestStand and LabView.
- Reduced test program development & debug using the schematic & virtual schematic views.
- Precise test coverage analysis during functional test development.
- Quick localization of failure/defect on schematic and layout view: QuadView is used as Repair station.
- Accurate diagnosis using the Sherlock algorithm: Overlapping test analysis between functional test steps or between structural tests and functional tests.
