EM&T Supplement

EM&T Supplement

In conjunction with this year's Nepcon show Electronics Manufacture and Test magazine produced a supplement of articles and advertisements from TISA members.

Some of the articles are listed here. If you would like a complete copy of the supplement please email:- supplement@tisagroup.co.uk.

Some of the articles are listed here.

Is X-Ray Inspection a viable alternative?

Guidelines For Testing Modern PCBs

Cost Models for Test Development

Increasing Test Productivity

Adding Value through Test and Warranty Management

Is X-Ray a viable alternative?

Automated X-Ray Inspection (AXI) provides solutions to many of the challenges facing today's electronics manufacturers. X-ray technology is capable of inspecting all standard electronics packages including press-fit connectors, 0201, Flip Chip, BGA, and CCGA in both surface mount and wave-solder applications. It also helps identify manufacturing assembly defects such as open power/ground connections and missing de-coupling capacitors that cannot be detected by electrical test methods.

There is a general trend in electronics toward increased device I/O, product complexity and functionality. As a result, the number of solder joints present on circuit boards is rapidly increasing. Concurrently, assembly process complexity is increasing; boards often undergo double sided SMT assembly, manual assembly, wave solder, press fit and further mechanical assembly stages. Even though manufacturers are striving to improve their process capabilities, they are finding it difficult to keep the number of defects per board on a declining trend because of the increased number of opportunities for error and increased process complexity.It is true that "70% to 80% of all defects are structural, and not electrical in nature". Many test-engineering organisations have traditionally expended 80% to 90% of their resources on electrical verification methods such as ICT and FT. As they re-focus their efforts somewhat on the structural fault spectrum, more resources are being focused on automated inspection methods such as AXI. Automated inspection does not replace electrical testing but structural verification methods are playing an increasingly important role. To improve process capabilities, manufacturers need effective tools that provide accurate and repeatable measurements on the physical attributes of the assembly process. What is electronics assembly anyway? It's basically about soldering. AXI is arguably the best tool for providing useful, insightful parametric data on the soldering process. One aspect of diagnostic resolution that is often overlooked is the tendency of manufacturing personnel to incorrectly diagnose failures. The cost of these errors is difficult to measure but easily appreciated when one considers the multiple rework and testing cycles a product can undergo when defects are misdiagnosed. Manufacturers worldwide are facing shortages of skilled labour and the trend toward contract manufacturing has meant an increased reliance on temporary workers. The time required to train manufacturing personnel to perform accurate ICT debug is arguably longer than the training time for AXI debug. The comparison is even more dramatic in the case of FT debug operators. With contracting product life cycles, time-to-market is a key focus area for OEMs. The faster they move from design to prototype to production, the higher the market-share, revenues and profits. Manufacturers are looking for alternative test strategies that reduce test development time and fixture lead-time. Automated Inspection methods such as AXI are attractive solutions for prototypes and new product introduction cycles. Test development is in the order of days, as opposed to weeks. Coverage can be close to 95% of solder and assembly related faults with immediate debug and repair. Because AXI is fixture-less, the cost and lead-time impacts of ICT fixtures can also be reduced. The increasing density of interconnections and packaging designs such as BGAs are making physical access for bed-of-nails testing more limited. Physical space constraints on circuit boards are only one dimension of the access problem; for example higher frequencies demand controlled impedance interconnections with minimal impedance discontinuities. These factors are limiting test access even when physical size is not a design constraint. The combination of reduced access at ICT with limited diagnostic resolution at ICT and FT on high complexity boards poses particular difficulties for electronics manufacturers and under these circumstances, AXI is seen as a solution to these problems or at least as a means of providing 'relief'.Obviously, no single test solution can fulfil all needs. A manufacturer's requirements for diagnostic resolution, test coverage, cycle time and other factors will determine the correct test strategy. An integrated test strategy with complementary value added by each test stage is most often the optimal approach. It is clear that AXI solves many of the inspection problems faced by today's electronics manufacturers and should therefore be routinely considered as part of an overall product test strategy.

Nick Hickford, Operations Director for Northern Europe, GenRad Europe

GenRad EuropeTel: 0161 491 9500.Web: www.genrad-europe.com

Back to Top

Guidelines For Testing Modern PCBs

It used to be that laying out a PCB which could be tested automatically was simple. All the components were through the board and a simple drill file or artwork was all that was needed to manufacture the fixture. Now with surface mount technology (SMT), everything is much more complex. In-circuit testing has been the front line method of test for PCBs, especially in sub contract manufacture.

One of the best answers to SMT is to introduce test points. These are extra tracks and lands specifically added to bring an inaccessible node out and provide access to it. Ideally a well 'designed for manufacture' product will have at least some test points. However this can result in EMC problems and affect the operation of some sensitive circuitry, but they have to be designed in from an early stage and this does not always happen. One answer to access problems may be to use double sided fixturing. At first this seems appealing as it provides many more opportunities to access hard-to-get-at nodes. However double sided probing is expensive and significantly harder to make reliable.The industry standard probe has always been on a 0.1 inch pitch and this has evolved into a low cost, reliable item available in a wide range of types. If the layout of the PCB permits then ideally all probing should be done with probes no closer than 0.1 inch.For combined in-circuit and functional testing, dual-height fixturing is often used. This means in-circuit probes can be normal probes, but the longer functional probes must have a much longer stroke. A common 0.1 inch probe will have a stroke of 6mm i.e. it is designed to compress by this length. Vias are a particular problem as they tend to be small (0.040 inch typically) and with a hole in the middle. The other vital constraint on vias is solder masking. In order to probe these they must be reliably unmasked. This means proper, planned masking and not relying on the PCB manufacturer or his process to happen to leave them clear. When a supplier like Mindready provides a fixture, they will chose probe tip styles which appear to offer the best connection. However there is no substitute for real life experience with the actual PCB and you should be prepared to change some of these styles as you pass significant PCBs through the fixture. In order to provide a PCB test application (program and fixture) Mindready requires certain items, the deliverables, which must be of the latest revision. Incorrect or out of date deliverables will cause extra debug time and possibly extra time on the clients site. The following list clarifies what is needed and why.Gerber files. This means top and bottom layer files, pad files, aperture or match file, solder mask and silk screen or component identification. Drill file. The X, Y coordinates used by the PCB manufacturer to drill the PCB. This provides the co-ordinates for our drilling. CAD schematics. These can usually be imported into the fixture manufacturer's own CAD and it makes component identification much quicker. All PCB and document revision numbers. It is vital that to know that the correct information is being used. Blank PCB. Sometimes it is necessary to electrically trace a particular track and the blank PCB allows this to be done. Built PCB. This is used for in manufacturing the fixture, mostly to check for component heights. It does not need to be a working board. Agreed number of tested PCBs. These must be manufactured using the same process as the real PCBs ie hand soldered samples are not acceptable where flow solder will be used. These are used both to choose the correct probe types and to test the program. Thus if the manufacture is different wrong probes may be used. Fresh copy of the schematics. Often ones supplied for quotation purposes are initial versions. Test specification. Used for functional testing.

Damian Burns, Head of Export & Marketing,Mindready Solutions (NI)

MindreadyTel: 028 9335 7300Web: www.mindready.com

Back to Top

Cost Models for Test Development

Increasing competitiveness in the electronics industry will drive UK companies to examine their test strategies as part of their overall product development. To ensure that maximum benefit is yielded from their investment, analysis needs to guarantee maximum effectiveness and efficiency of the test operations. The economic influences affecting test strategies are complex and their relative impact are not clearly understood. This is particularly true for low volume products.

Managers of test operations have difficult decisions to make, choosing between traditional test technologies, new test techniques, use of sub-contract manufacturers and emerging component package technologies, to name but a few. The key cost influences of test development, manufacturing test and service test have been established. An economic test strategy model has been developed to assist organisations to select the optimum choice for their low volume electronic product testing. Experiments to verify the economic model have been performed using modern technology products with a variety of scenarios demonstrated. These have included the selection of a variety of test techniques, different production volumes, varying manufacturing process performance and alternative service situations. The findings of the experiments demonstrate the interrelation between the individual test costs, product volumes and manufacturing quality. It has been shown that the cost impact of low volume manufacturing can have a serious effect on a product's viability in the market unless the best choices have been made for the test strategy. Indeed, the research points to an awareness that more radical decisions may have to be made in order to make the testing more economic. The research could lead companies to consider using contract manufacturers or altering their organisational structure so that the test development costs are amortised across wider parts of their organisation. This research will assist organisations striving to minimise costs by providing overall test cost information in a rational and dynamic fashion. In conclusion, unless the best and most appropriate decisions are taken, an organisation's profits and even survival are at risk.

Robert Trott, IFR International

IFRTel: 01438 742200Web: www.ifrinternational.com

Back to Top

Increasing Test Productivity

In 1976 a group of young innovative engineers under the leadership of Luciano Bonaria formed SPEA (Systemi Per Electronica et Automatzioni) to develop the new incircuit test technique for inspecting assembled PCBs. The initial period of SPEA brought the introduction of the revolutionary "Intest" and "Personal Test" series of test solutions and allowed customers to lower the cost of finding defects in the manufacturing process compared to existing functional test methods. The later introduction of SPEA's - "Polyfunctional" test techniques enhanced the incircuit test for each component by adding functional tests so aspects of the performance of the tested component or system could also be verified. The bed of nails approach of connecting the unit under test to the automatic test equipment was very effective with most designs using through hole components or test access points. New construction techniques and smaller device packaging have challenged the traditional ways of gaining "controllability and observability" of devices and systems fundamental to the test process.

As with any evolutionary mechanism both users and suppliers have reinvented the way they work and the choice of other inspection techniques has grown to include x-ray, vision and flying probe amongst others. New techniques require assimilation so that the correct inspection strategy is employed. Production management has needed to establish whether they are simply in the business of manufacturing good solder joints and placing components or producing a conformed and configured product, the decision is key to this strategy. Additional factors such as batch/lean or volume production will drive the economics of the inspection solution that is now seen as an unnecessary cost. Fixtureless Flying Probe test technology has gained popularity because it addresses many of the constraints challenging today's manufacturing test professional. The strengths of a contact-based technique backed by true incircuit test is the ability to determine by direct measurement the presence, orientation and value of placed components and the precise diagnosis of short circuits and opens. Electroscan is an advanced development of the vectorless techniques which is overcoming these limitations with ball grid arrays and devices with metal caps. The measurements and diagnosis is direct and not interpreted as it is with visual or x-ray inspection so the incidence false fails or passes with opens is reduced. Device packaging is an important factor especially where devices are small, for example 0201, and layouts rely on the devices being probed directly. The resolution and repeatability of flying probe test systems is better than 25 microns and usually means that with the effect of board flexing taken into account, probing areas wider than 150 microns are needed to be reliable. In such cases where provision is not made then an optical approach is appropriate although with the smallest devices care must be taken to model them precisely as often device labelling is not present and a component can be viewed but not verified. A major driver for the choice of inspection tool, is the tac time of the line and it can lead to a difficult decision if test time is at a premium. Typical inspection rates of between 1 and 20 components per second are made with the current choice of inspection tools but at what reliability? Clearly a process which allows escapes will slow the overall throughput of the line as bonepiles accumulated from functional dropouts are manually reworked. The challenge for a flying probe tester manufacturer is to lower the test time without a loss of fault coverage. Innovative new techniques developed by SPEA reduce the time taken for shorts and opens tests which are the major terms in any flying probe test. This coupled with virtual BON facilities offered by underside electroscan, boundary scan and edge connectivity means that flying probe test is now a real choice in production.The value of automation and its effect on productivity has also been recognised. Procuring a test solution in either a stand-alone or SMEMA compliant format has opened the choices for inline volume or batch production. To extend this option SPEA has introduced its automatic Cassette Loader system (ACL). With a large capacity for handling boards and flexible segregation of untested, passed and failed boards this system extends the possibility of lowering costs. Multiple ACLs linked together allows the option of extended hands free operation which when coupled with Repairpac paperless repair and quality monitoring software provides a compelling high productivity solution.

Doug Jones, SPEA (UK)

SPEA (UK)Tel: 01929 554444Web: www.spea.co.uk

Back to Top

Adding Value through Test and Warranty Management

The changing face of electronic production has brought Test, traditionally considered a poor relation of the industry, once again to the forefront. With increased globalisation and reducing differentiation in product functionality, the OEM's have had to look further in recent years than their logos, to improveproduct loyalty. The rapid development/distribution cycle together with the equally rapid obsolescence of product has left the OEM with a growing product catalog to support, both in, and out of, warranty. This is in direct conflict with the need for them to concentrate on their core product offering, and as we have seen in the Production model, with OEM's increasingly outsourcing PCB assembly and striving for greater economy, Test is now undergoing a rationalisation process and outsourcing is becoming a reality for many organisations.

This is not simply outsourcing of one area of technology, but more the complete spectrum of test. Technology, of course, is helping to drive this; decreasing accessibility to components on any given PCB and the increasing use of BGA's and other complex devices has added a further complication to the test process for which many companies are not equipped. The need for X-Ray is becoming common-place at many stages of both prototyping and production, and the costs and infrastructure associated with this are significant. By outsourcing to a dedicated test and repair facility the OEM can concentrate on its core business and rely on the test facility to concentrate on the repairs, dealing with such issues as boundary-scan, physical access to components, optical and x-ray inspection. The net result of a well outsourced operation is typically one of greater productivity and innovation from the OEM, and improved customer satisfaction, and ultimately retention, through well-managed anonymous warranty support and repair utilising call-centre technology and specialist repairservices.It will be argued by many that Test is an integral part of any production facility and cannot economically be separated from the production environment, but for others, process controls have been tightened and Test has already left the building.

Ted Gray, Service Solutions Manager,DiagnoSYS Limited

DiagnoSYSTel: 01730 260699Web: www.diagnosys.com

Back to Top

	EM&T Supplement
	In conjunction with this year's Nepcon show Electronics Manufacture and Test magazine produced a supplement of articles and advertisements from TISA members. Some of the articles are listed here. If you would like a complete copy of the supplement please email:- supplement@tisagroup.co.uk. Some of the articles are listed here. Is X-Ray Inspection a viable alternative? Guidelines For Testing Modern PCBs Cost Models for Test Development Increasing Test Productivity Adding Value through Test and Warranty Management *Is X-Ray a viable alternative?* Automated X-Ray Inspection (AXI) provides solutions to many of the challenges facing today's electronics manufacturers. X-ray technology is capable of inspecting all standard electronics packages including press-fit connectors, 0201, Flip Chip, BGA, and CCGA in both surface mount and wave-solder applications. It also helps identify manufacturing assembly defects such as open power/ground connections and missing de-coupling capacitors that cannot be detected by electrical test methods. There is a general trend in electronics toward increased device I/O, product complexity and functionality. As a result, the number of solder joints present on circuit boards is rapidly increasing. Concurrently, assembly process complexity is increasing; boards often undergo double sided SMT assembly, manual assembly, wave solder, press fit and further mechanical assembly stages. Even though manufacturers are striving to improve their process capabilities, they are finding it difficult to keep the number of defects per board on a declining trend because of the increased number of opportunities for error and increased process complexity.It is true that "70% to 80% of all defects are structural, and not electrical in nature". Many test-engineering organisations have traditionally expended 80% to 90% of their resources on electrical verification methods such as ICT and FT. As they re-focus their efforts somewhat on the structural fault spectrum, more resources are being focused on automated inspection methods such as AXI. Automated inspection does not replace electrical testing but structural verification methods are playing an increasingly important role. To improve process capabilities, manufacturers need effective tools that provide accurate and repeatable measurements on the physical attributes of the assembly process. What is electronics assembly anyway? It's basically about soldering. AXI is arguably the best tool for providing useful, insightful parametric data on the soldering process. One aspect of diagnostic resolution that is often overlooked is the tendency of manufacturing personnel to incorrectly diagnose failures. The cost of these errors is difficult to measure but easily appreciated when one considers the multiple rework and testing cycles a product can undergo when defects are misdiagnosed. Manufacturers worldwide are facing shortages of skilled labour and the trend toward contract manufacturing has meant an increased reliance on temporary workers. The time required to train manufacturing personnel to perform accurate ICT debug is arguably longer than the training time for AXI debug. The comparison is even more dramatic in the case of FT debug operators. With contracting product life cycles, time-to-market is a key focus area for OEMs. The faster they move from design to prototype to production, the higher the market-share, revenues and profits. Manufacturers are looking for alternative test strategies that reduce test development time and fixture lead-time. Automated Inspection methods such as AXI are attractive solutions for prototypes and new product introduction cycles. Test development is in the order of days, as opposed to weeks. Coverage can be close to 95% of solder and assembly related faults with immediate debug and repair. Because AXI is fixture-less, the cost and lead-time impacts of ICT fixtures can also be reduced. The increasing density of interconnections and packaging designs such as BGAs are making physical access for bed-of-nails testing more limited. Physical space constraints on circuit boards are only one dimension of the access problem; for example higher frequencies demand controlled impedance interconnections with minimal impedance discontinuities. These factors are limiting test access even when physical size is not a design constraint. The combination of reduced access at ICT with limited diagnostic resolution at ICT and FT on high complexity boards poses particular difficulties for electronics manufacturers and under these circumstances, AXI is seen as a solution to these problems or at least as a means of providing 'relief'.Obviously, no single test solution can fulfil all needs. A manufacturer's requirements for diagnostic resolution, test coverage, cycle time and other factors will determine the correct test strategy. An integrated test strategy with complementary value added by each test stage is most often the optimal approach. It is clear that AXI solves many of the inspection problems faced by today's electronics manufacturers and should therefore be routinely considered as part of an overall product test strategy. Nick Hickford, Operations Director for Northern Europe, GenRad Europe GenRad EuropeTel: 0161 491 9500.Web: www.genrad-europe.com Back to Top *Guidelines For Testing Modern PCBs* It used to be that laying out a PCB which could be tested automatically was simple. All the components were through the board and a simple drill file or artwork was all that was needed to manufacture the fixture. Now with surface mount technology (SMT), everything is much more complex. In-circuit testing has been the front line method of test for PCBs, especially in sub contract manufacture. One of the best answers to SMT is to introduce test points. These are extra tracks and lands specifically added to bring an inaccessible node out and provide access to it. Ideally a well 'designed for manufacture' product will have at least some test points. However this can result in EMC problems and affect the operation of some sensitive circuitry, but they have to be designed in from an early stage and this does not always happen. One answer to access problems may be to use double sided fixturing. At first this seems appealing as it provides many more opportunities to access hard-to-get-at nodes. However double sided probing is expensive and significantly harder to make reliable.The industry standard probe has always been on a 0.1 inch pitch and this has evolved into a low cost, reliable item available in a wide range of types. If the layout of the PCB permits then ideally all probing should be done with probes no closer than 0.1 inch.For combined in-circuit and functional testing, dual-height fixturing is often used. This means in-circuit probes can be normal probes, but the longer functional probes must have a much longer stroke. A common 0.1 inch probe will have a stroke of 6mm i.e. it is designed to compress by this length. Vias are a particular problem as they tend to be small (0.040 inch typically) and with a hole in the middle. The other vital constraint on vias is solder masking. In order to probe these they must be reliably unmasked. This means proper, planned masking and not relying on the PCB manufacturer or his process to happen to leave them clear. When a supplier like Mindready provides a fixture, they will chose probe tip styles which appear to offer the best connection. However there is no substitute for real life experience with the actual PCB and you should be prepared to change some of these styles as you pass significant PCBs through the fixture. In order to provide a PCB test application (program and fixture) Mindready requires certain items, the deliverables, which must be of the latest revision. Incorrect or out of date deliverables will cause extra debug time and possibly extra time on the clients site. The following list clarifies what is needed and why.Gerber files. This means top and bottom layer files, pad files, aperture or match file, solder mask and silk screen or component identification. Drill file. The X, Y coordinates used by the PCB manufacturer to drill the PCB. This provides the co-ordinates for our drilling. CAD schematics. These can usually be imported into the fixture manufacturer's own CAD and it makes component identification much quicker. All PCB and document revision numbers. It is vital that to know that the correct information is being used. Blank PCB. Sometimes it is necessary to electrically trace a particular track and the blank PCB allows this to be done. Built PCB. This is used for in manufacturing the fixture, mostly to check for component heights. It does not need to be a working board. Agreed number of tested PCBs. These must be manufactured using the same process as the real PCBs ie hand soldered samples are not acceptable where flow solder will be used. These are used both to choose the correct probe types and to test the program. Thus if the manufacture is different wrong probes may be used. Fresh copy of the schematics. Often ones supplied for quotation purposes are initial versions. Test specification. Used for functional testing. Damian Burns, Head of Export & Marketing,Mindready Solutions (NI) MindreadyTel: 028 9335 7300Web: www.mindready.com Back to Top *Cost Models for Test Development* Increasing competitiveness in the electronics industry will drive UK companies to examine their test strategies as part of their overall product development. To ensure that maximum benefit is yielded from their investment, analysis needs to guarantee maximum effectiveness and efficiency of the test operations. The economic influences affecting test strategies are complex and their relative impact are not clearly understood. This is particularly true for low volume products. Managers of test operations have difficult decisions to make, choosing between traditional test technologies, new test techniques, use of sub-contract manufacturers and emerging component package technologies, to name but a few. The key cost influences of test development, manufacturing test and service test have been established. An economic test strategy model has been developed to assist organisations to select the optimum choice for their low volume electronic product testing. Experiments to verify the economic model have been performed using modern technology products with a variety of scenarios demonstrated. These have included the selection of a variety of test techniques, different production volumes, varying manufacturing process performance and alternative service situations. The findings of the experiments demonstrate the interrelation between the individual test costs, product volumes and manufacturing quality. It has been shown that the cost impact of low volume manufacturing can have a serious effect on a product's viability in the market unless the best choices have been made for the test strategy. Indeed, the research points to an awareness that more radical decisions may have to be made in order to make the testing more economic. The research could lead companies to consider using contract manufacturers or altering their organisational structure so that the test development costs are amortised across wider parts of their organisation. This research will assist organisations striving to minimise costs by providing overall test cost information in a rational and dynamic fashion. In conclusion, unless the best and most appropriate decisions are taken, an organisation's profits and even survival are at risk. Robert Trott, IFR International IFRTel: 01438 742200Web: www.ifrinternational.com Back to Top *Increasing Test Productivity* In 1976 a group of young innovative engineers under the leadership of Luciano Bonaria formed SPEA (Systemi Per Electronica et Automatzioni) to develop the new incircuit test technique for inspecting assembled PCBs. The initial period of SPEA brought the introduction of the revolutionary "Intest" and "Personal Test" series of test solutions and allowed customers to lower the cost of finding defects in the manufacturing process compared to existing functional test methods. The later introduction of SPEA's - "Polyfunctional" test techniques enhanced the incircuit test for each component by adding functional tests so aspects of the performance of the tested component or system could also be verified. The bed of nails approach of connecting the unit under test to the automatic test equipment was very effective with most designs using through hole components or test access points. New construction techniques and smaller device packaging have challenged the traditional ways of gaining "controllability and observability" of devices and systems fundamental to the test process. As with any evolutionary mechanism both users and suppliers have reinvented the way they work and the choice of other inspection techniques has grown to include x-ray, vision and flying probe amongst others. New techniques require assimilation so that the correct inspection strategy is employed. Production management has needed to establish whether they are simply in the business of manufacturing good solder joints and placing components or producing a conformed and configured product, the decision is key to this strategy. Additional factors such as batch/lean or volume production will drive the economics of the inspection solution that is now seen as an unnecessary cost. Fixtureless Flying Probe test technology has gained popularity because it addresses many of the constraints challenging today's manufacturing test professional. The strengths of a contact-based technique backed by true incircuit test is the ability to determine by direct measurement the presence, orientation and value of placed components and the precise diagnosis of short circuits and opens. Electroscan is an advanced development of the vectorless techniques which is overcoming these limitations with ball grid arrays and devices with metal caps. The measurements and diagnosis is direct and not interpreted as it is with visual or x-ray inspection so the incidence false fails or passes with opens is reduced. Device packaging is an important factor especially where devices are small, for example 0201, and layouts rely on the devices being probed directly. The resolution and repeatability of flying probe test systems is better than 25 microns and usually means that with the effect of board flexing taken into account, probing areas wider than 150 microns are needed to be reliable. In such cases where provision is not made then an optical approach is appropriate although with the smallest devices care must be taken to model them precisely as often device labelling is not present and a component can be viewed but not verified. A major driver for the choice of inspection tool, is the tac time of the line and it can lead to a difficult decision if test time is at a premium. Typical inspection rates of between 1 and 20 components per second are made with the current choice of inspection tools but at what reliability? Clearly a process which allows escapes will slow the overall throughput of the line as bonepiles accumulated from functional dropouts are manually reworked. The challenge for a flying probe tester manufacturer is to lower the test time without a loss of fault coverage. Innovative new techniques developed by SPEA reduce the time taken for shorts and opens tests which are the major terms in any flying probe test. This coupled with virtual BON facilities offered by underside electroscan, boundary scan and edge connectivity means that flying probe test is now a real choice in production.The value of automation and its effect on productivity has also been recognised. Procuring a test solution in either a stand-alone or SMEMA compliant format has opened the choices for inline volume or batch production. To extend this option SPEA has introduced its automatic Cassette Loader system (ACL). With a large capacity for handling boards and flexible segregation of untested, passed and failed boards this system extends the possibility of lowering costs. Multiple ACLs linked together allows the option of extended hands free operation which when coupled with Repairpac paperless repair and quality monitoring software provides a compelling high productivity solution. Doug Jones, SPEA (UK) SPEA (UK)Tel: 01929 554444Web: www.spea.co.uk Back to Top
	*Adding Value through Test and Warranty Management* The changing face of electronic production has brought Test, traditionally considered a poor relation of the industry, once again to the forefront. With increased globalisation and reducing differentiation in product functionality, the OEM's have had to look further in recent years than their logos, to improveproduct loyalty. The rapid development/distribution cycle together with the equally rapid obsolescence of product has left the OEM with a growing product catalog to support, both in, and out of, warranty. This is in direct conflict with the need for them to concentrate on their core product offering, and as we have seen in the Production model, with OEM's increasingly outsourcing PCB assembly and striving for greater economy, Test is now undergoing a rationalisation process and outsourcing is becoming a reality for many organisations. This is not simply outsourcing of one area of technology, but more the complete spectrum of test. Technology, of course, is helping to drive this; decreasing accessibility to components on any given PCB and the increasing use of BGA's and other complex devices has added a further complication to the test process for which many companies are not equipped. The need for X-Ray is becoming common-place at many stages of both prototyping and production, and the costs and infrastructure associated with this are significant. By outsourcing to a dedicated test and repair facility the OEM can concentrate on its core business and rely on the test facility to concentrate on the repairs, dealing with such issues as boundary-scan, physical access to components, optical and x-ray inspection. The net result of a well outsourced operation is typically one of greater productivity and innovation from the OEM, and improved customer satisfaction, and ultimately retention, through well-managed anonymous warranty support and repair utilising call-centre technology and specialist repairservices.It will be argued by many that Test is an integral part of any production facility and cannot economically be separated from the production environment, but for others, process controls have been tightened and Test has already left the building. Ted Gray, Service Solutions Manager,DiagnoSYS Limited DiagnoSYSTel: 01730 260699Web: www.diagnosys.com Back to Top