System for digitizing and displaying analog signatures of integrated circuits

• US 4,965,516 A
• Filed: 05/27/1988
• Issued: 10/23/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/1988
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Huntron Instruments Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Huntron Instruments Incorporated
• Inventors: Howard, Alan D., Traulsen, Robert D., Hoo, James W., Masten, Michael M., Pennock, James L., Parshotam, Mahesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Karlsen, Ernest F.
• Application Number:
  US07/200,011
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: 324/73 R, 324/121 R, 324/158 R, 324/158 T, 324/73.1, 371/25, 371/22.4, 364/481, 364/487
• US Class Current: 324/606
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/316 Testing of analog circuits G01R31/2851 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/277 with comparison between actual response and known fault-free response

Abstract

A semiconductor test instrument (12) provides an AC interrogating signal to an element under test, such as a single pin of an IC. Horizontal and vertical signals are developed and applied to a display (33) which produces an analog signature signal representative of the operating condition of the test element. The horizontal and vertical signals are converted to digital signals by an A-D converter (34) and stored in memory (39). An analog signature is also obtained from the same element as the test element but which is known to be good. The horizontal and vertical components of this signature are also converted into digital signals and stored in memory (42). The test and reference digital signals are then compared and those test digital signals which are different identified. The analog signatures corresponding to both the test and reference digital values are then reconstructed for display and superimposed, for viewing by an operator.

Claims

1. An apparatus for developing, digitizing, and displaying analog signature information, comprising:

means for developing an analog signature signal representative of the operating condition of a selected element of an electronic circuit;

means for converting said analog signature signal to test digital values and storing said test digital values;

means for developing and storing reference digital values for the same element as said selected element, wherein said same element is known to be operating properly;

means responsive to said stored digital values and said reference digital values, respectively, to produce reconstructed analog signatures therefrom which are substantially identical to analog signatures obtained directly from said selected element and said same element; and

means for simultaneously displaying said reconstructed signatures.

2. An apparatus of claim 1, including means for superimposing the displayed reconstructed signatures.

3. An apparatus of claim 1, including means for entering identifying information for a particular electronic circuit, including identifying information for systems, units, boards, sections and components comprising said circuit.

4. An apparatus of claim 1, including means for selectively changing the identifying information for said particular electronic circuit.

5. An apparatus of claim 1, including means for automatically comparing test digital values with reference digital values for all of the elements of a particular component in sequence.

6. An apparatus of claim 1, including means establishing a tolerance relative to said reference digital values and for indicating which test digital values are outside of said tolerance.

7. An apparatus of claim 5, including means for sorting those test digital values outside of said tolerance in accordance with a selected criteria.

8. An apparatus of claim 1, including means for storing the reference digital values in permanent memory, means for temporarily storing said test digital values, and means for transferring said reference digital values for a selected component from permanent memory to temporary memory when the selected component is to be tested.

9. An apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reference digital values and the test digital values are digital representations of the horizontal and vertical components of reference analog signatures and test analog signatures, respectively.

10. An apparatus of claim 1, including means for simultaneously displaying analog signatures for more than one element.

11. An apparatus of claim 1, including means for selectively enlarging the displayed analog signatures.

12. An apparatus of claim 2, wherein the test analog signature display and the reference analog signature display are differentiated visually relative to each other.

13. An apparatus for digitizing and displaying analog signature information which is representative of the operating condition of a selected element to be tested of an electronic circuit, comprising;

means for converting analog signature information for said test element to corresponding test digital information, and storing said test digital information;

means for storing reference digital information for said selected element, the reference digital information being from an element identical to said selected test element and which is known to be operating properly; and

means for reconstructing analog signatures from said test digital information and said reference digital information and for simultaneously displaying said two analog signatures.

14. An apparatus of claim 13, wherein the test digital information and the reference digital information are digital representations of the horizontal and vertical components of the analog signatures for the test element and the reference element, respectively.

15. An apparatus of claim 13, wherein said two analog signatures are displayed superimposed.