Enhancements to Teradyne's flying prober provide faster board test to meet manufacturing demands of shorter new product life cycles

Citation

(1999), "Enhancements to Teradyne's flying prober provide faster board test to meet manufacturing demands of shorter new product life cycles", Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Vol. 11 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ssmt.1999.21911cad.002

Enhancements to Teradyne's flying prober provide faster board test to meet manufacturing demands of shorter new product life cycles

Enhancements to Teradyne's flying prober provide faster board test to meet manufacturing demands of shorter new product life cycles

Keywords Teradyne, Testing, Probes

Teradyne, Inc. has announced that its Flying Prober FP1004, a "fixtureless" manufacturing process test system, has been enhanced with new features that improve test throughput and device fault coverage for printed circuit board test. The Flying Prober has been updated to include the Windows NT operating system. New fault diagnostic tools consist of MultiScan vectorless test tools and Vision test. A built-in conveyor is fully programmable and SMEMA compatible for integrated in-line test capabilities. The new features respond to manufacturers' need for faster testing to accommodate shrinking product life cycles in a high-volume production environment.

"The additional fault diagnostic tools give prototype test manufacturers a turbo-powered vectorless test platform. Because the Flying Prober eliminates the need for bed-of-nails fixtures, it helps reduce program development and debug time and expense while still providing high fault coverage for prototype testing and sample in-line testing", says Elie Bouskela, Teradyne's product manager.

"The Flying Prober's in-line capabilities extend its suitability to sample testing in high-volume production environments. By leveraging hardware capabilities that already exist on the FP1004, manufacturers are able to integrate the prober with factory automated lines. The Flying Prober can be situated anywhere in the manufacturer's line. This makes prototype testing and sample in-line testing flexible and efficient."

The Flying Prober FP1004 now operates in the Windows NT environment for runtime production testing and test development. The menu-driven, graphical presentation of the operating system makes it intuitive for programmers reducing training and accelerating the debug process. Other Windows NT features on the new system include multitasking and support of Windows DLL (Dynamically Linked Libraries) and COM (Component Object Model) standards, which enable communications with other Windows programs, locally or over a network. The Windows NT software platform simplifies integration of the Flying Prober into factory networks and provides access to hundreds of third-party Windows NT software tools and utilities.

Two MultiScan vectorless test techniques DeltaScan and FrameScan are now available on the Flying Prober. DeltaScan measures changes in the DC current flowing through the protection diodes at each pin. This technique enables the Flying Prober to detect opens on integrated circuits, including BGAs and devices with heat sinks. FrameScan is a power-off technique used for testing multiple in-circuit devices, connectors and sockets. The FrameScan technique is especially convenient for surface mount boards. FrameScan can also be used on non-digital components.

The Vision test option utilizes the Flying Prober's precise fiducial camera to test component presence and orientation. Vision test increases fault coverage by testing non-electrical component characteristics, such as orientation and presence, by comparing a board under test to a proven good board.

The test system is currently shipping to customers, and 65 Flying Probers are installed worldwide. Prices will vary outside North America.