Board test evolves, APEX panel to elaborate
Rick Nelson, Editor in Chief -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2009 2:00:00 AM
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As electronic products become more complex, engineers increasingly need to build in testability at all levels—chip, board, and system—and the testability they provide should address complete product and component life cycles, ranging from silicon debug to end-product field service.
 The ScanFlex Board Grabber supports laboratory verification and prototype programming; it can also serve in repair-station applications. Courtesy of Goepel electronic. |
Technologies that can serve to ensure the quality of boards and systems range from x-ray and optical inspection through functional board and system test. When it comes to testability, boundary-scan techniques play a significant role, and vendors are focusing on expanding their boundary-scan-related offerings. We covered the topic in our February issue (“
,”), and since that article went to press, Goepel electronic has introduced a series of universal board fixtures (figure) compatible with its ScanFlex boundary-scan hardware platform, and JTAG Technologies has released new versions of its JTAG ProVision and Visualizer development and hardware debug tools, which now offer features such as an interactive cluster test generator, buffer and multiplexer support for memory testing, expanded model libraries, and an enhanced user interface that, for example, presents board views in multiple orientations
In other recent boundary-scan-related news, Glenn Woppman, president and CEO of Asset InterTech, was named a finalist for sister-publication EDN’s Innovator of the Year award. EDN editors selected Woppman because of his company’s work with on-chip EI (embedded instrumentation); Asset’s efforts involve participation in the IEEE P1687 Internal JTAG standard working group, whose goals are to provide a nonproprietary standard for access and control of EI, regardless of the source of the IP.
Of course, inspection, in-circuit board test, and functional test will continue to play a role. Currently, the inspection business might be in the most fluid condition, because key participant Agilent Technologies announced on February 9 that it is exiting the automated x-ray and automated optical inspection businesses. Jack Rozwat, Americas sales and support GM for the systems and solutions team in Agilent’s electronic measurements group, said the company wants to refocus its efforts on the ICT (in-circuit test) business. Recent innovations in that area include Cover-Extend technology, which Test & Measurement World editors chose as a finalist for this year’s Best in Test awards.
But inspection will continue to have a role to play, a role that you can learn more about at the “Test and Inspection Summit,” a panel discussion that I will moderate. It’s slated for Wednesday, April 1, 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm at the IPC APEX in Las Vegas.
Panelists will include Rozwat as well as David Buhrkuhl, president, SPEA America; Peter van den Eijnden, president, JTAG Technologies; Mark Harding, director of sales, North America, Digitaltest; Carsten Salewski, president and CEO, Viscom; and Phil Vere, managing director, Bondtest, Dage Precision Industries.
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