Support for Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) Integration

Boundary-scan test and in-system programming provides benefits in all phases of a product life cycle, from development to manufacturing. By coupling the power of Corelis boundary-scan tools with an Automatic Test Equipment (ATE), a complete, integrated solution is available that offers the best advantages of both technologies.

Boundary-scan is a perfect companion to automatic test systems that rely on physical interface to component pins. Boundary-scan can test areas of printed circuit board assemblies that are difficult to access due to physical space constraints and loss of physical access, which is often due to fine pitch components such as Ball Grid Array (BGA) devices. Conversely, the physical test system can check the non-boundary-scan compatible circuits in the unit under test (UUT), such as analog circuitry.

Reusable Tests

Production and manufacturing departments can reuse all boundary-scan test and programming files created during the design and prototype product phases. This methodology conveniently allows tests that were developed on a standalone boundary-scan development station to be directly ported into test equipment that the production and manufacturing departments already owns or may decide to purchase in the future.

Corelis provides its customers with the means to reuse all the boundary-scan test and programming files created with the ScanExpress system with the following testers:

• Functional testers

• In-circuit testers (ICTs)

• Bed of nails testers

• Flying probes

• Manufacturing defect analyzers (MDAs)

Corelis has partnered with high profile test equipment manufacturers including Keysight, Teradyne, CheckSum, Seica, Digitaltest, National Instruments, and others to integrate the ScanExpress boundary-scan tools within these test systems.

Design and test engineers often invest considerable effort creating boundary-scan tests for initial development and prototyping. When the design is released to production, this effort is typically duplicated by redeveloping the same boundary-scan tests from scratch for use on an ICT, flying probe tester, functional tester, or MDA. The integration of Corelis ScanExpress boundary-scan tools was designed specifically to eliminate this redundant effort and hence unify boundary-scan test procedures across the complete product life cycle, saving time, effort and ultimately dollars. Additionally, a more thorough test can often be achieved since the design engineer has unique insight into the details of the design that can be transferred directly to a more complete and robust test procedure. The test procedures passed down from engineering are often matured and refined from usage, making them much more valuable to the repair technician for fault detection and analysis.

Boundary-scan tests, created during development and executed on bench-top systems, can now be applied directly in these test systems. The seamless integration utilizes the tester’s native software to present faults that are detected by the boundary-scan portion of the test. Specifically, the advanced diagnostic capability of the ScanExpress boundary-scan software identifies the cause of the fault down to the net and pin level.

Test System Integration

Integrating Corelis boundary-scan tools with ICT into a single test system forms a powerful and cost-effective solution that virtually eliminates each of the obstacles that are presented to the individual test technologies. By utilizing the benefits of both boundary-scan and ICT, complete test procedures can be created in a minimal time frame that provide outstanding test coverage of the entire printed circuit board assembly.

The efficiency of boundary-scan is extended still further by the added benefits of JTAG-based In-System-Programming. Flash memories and other PLD devices can be programmed in-system by simply including programming steps into the boundary-scan test plan.

Combining the effectiveness of boundary-scan with the power and flexibility of ICT produces a unified test methodology that is robust, extensive, and easy to use. With the appropriate use of boundary-scan, test fixtures can be greatly simplified, leading directly to reduced test cost and development time.