Method and apparatus for testing integrated circuits
First Claim
1. An apparatus for testing a circuit device, said circuit device having a plurality of terminal pins through which said device is adapted to be operated in accordance with its intended circuit function, comprising:
- first means for generating a sequence of test control signals in accordance with which a circuit device is tested;
a plurality of second means, each of which second means is associated with a respective one of said terminal pins and stores a plurality of electrical stimulas-representative signals for causing the selective application of electrical stimulas signals to said associated respective one of said terminal pins in response to a test control signal generated by said first means, and sensor means, adapted to be coupled to said associated respective one of said terminal pins, for monitoring a prescribed electrical parameter thereat; and
control means for selectively altering said sequence of test control signals in response to an electrical parameter monitored by one of said sensor means.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A processor controlled IC component test apparatus adapted to be employed in-line with automatic IC DIP component handling equipment is capable of conducting a preselected verification check of each IC device regardless of the orientation of the DIP in the device contact receptable of the IC handling apparatus. As each device under test (DUT) is inserted into the apparatus test head, a pin-check residual voltage measurement test is conducted to ensure that all the pins of the DUT are in contact with the contact terminals of the test head. If the pin-check test establishes that all the pins of the DUT are in contact with the contact terminals of the test head, a prescribed non-destructive impedance measurement test is carried out in order to determine the orientation of the DIP in the test head. If the device passes the orientation test or is determined by the orientation test to be simply misoriented (inserted upside-down), it is then subjected to a prescribed functionality check (with the direction of orientation taken into account).
The processor architecture of the test apparatus is configured to maximize the systems'"'"'s ability to rapidly sequence through the test vectors for the various DUTs, while also offering the capability to perform traditional CPU functions during the execution of a test. For this purpose, the processor employs a mode-controlled pipelined architecture through which program instructions stored in memory are controllably accessed and processed through either an address-controlled flow path or a data-controlled flow path.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An apparatus for testing a circuit device, said circuit device having a plurality of terminal pins through which said device is adapted to be operated in accordance with its intended circuit function, comprising:
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first means for generating a sequence of test control signals in accordance with which a circuit device is tested; a plurality of second means, each of which second means is associated with a respective one of said terminal pins and stores a plurality of electrical stimulas-representative signals for causing the selective application of electrical stimulas signals to said associated respective one of said terminal pins in response to a test control signal generated by said first means, and sensor means, adapted to be coupled to said associated respective one of said terminal pins, for monitoring a prescribed electrical parameter thereat; and
control means for selectively altering said sequence of test control signals in response to an electrical parameter monitored by one of said sensor means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. For use with an apparatus for generating electrical stimulas signals to be coupled to an output circuit device, a processor-controlled arrangement for controlling the accessing of instructions from memory, through prescribed operations on which instructions said electrical stimulas signals are generated, comprising:
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first means, adapted to be coupled to said output circuit, and comprising a plurality of driver memory means each storing a respective plurality of said electrical stimulas-representative signals for causing the selective application of electrical stimulas signals to said output circuit device; and second means, including a memory unit and responsive to the contents of instructions stored therein, for generating storage access signals and causing said storage access signals to be coupled to both said memory unit for accessing instructions therefrom and to said first means for accessing electrical stimulas-representative signals therefrom for a first mode of operation of said processor, and for generating address signals for accessing instructions from said memory unit that are associated with prescribed data processing operations of said processor, in response to which processing operations the addresses of further instructions to be accessed from said memory unit are defined, for a second mode of operation of said processor. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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Specification