Methods and apparatus for testing circuit boards
First Claim
1. A method for non-contact testing of electronic circuit boards, the method comprising:
- disposing at least one electromagnetic emission sensing probe a short distance from a circuit board under test;
applying time dependent test signals to operate the circuit board while sensing electromagnetic emission from a region of the circuit board near the probe;
developing a time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission, the time domain representation comprising a signal representing evolution of the sensed electromagnetic emission from said region of said circuit board over a finite period of time; and
comparing the time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission to a time domain representation of electromagnetic emission from a corresponding region of a similar circuit board subject to the same time dependent test signals.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In methods and apparatus for non-contact testing of an electronic circuit board at least one electromagnetic emission sensing probe is disposed a short distance from a circuit board under test, the circuit board is operated while sensing electromagnetic emission from a region of the circuit board near the probe, and a time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission is developed. The time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission is compared to a time domain representation of electromagnetic emission of a circuit board known to be operating properly. Preferably, an array of electric field sensing probes is used to sense emissions from several regions of the circuit board simultaneously, and time domain representations of the sensed electromagnetic emissions are simultaneously developed and compared to respective time domain representations of electromagnetic emissions from circuit boards known to be operating properly.
49 Citations
47 Claims
-
1. A method for non-contact testing of electronic circuit boards, the method comprising:
-
disposing at least one electromagnetic emission sensing probe a short distance from a circuit board under test; applying time dependent test signals to operate the circuit board while sensing electromagnetic emission from a region of the circuit board near the probe; developing a time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission, the time domain representation comprising a signal representing evolution of the sensed electromagnetic emission from said region of said circuit board over a finite period of time; and comparing the time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission to a time domain representation of electromagnetic emission from a corresponding region of a similar circuit board subject to the same time dependent test signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. Apparatus for non-contact testing of an electronic circuit board, comprising:
-
a controller for applying time dependent test signals to operate the circuit board; at least one non-contact electromagnetic emission sensing probe for sensing electromagnetic emission from a region of the circuit board near the probe while said time dependent test signals are applied to the circuit board; and a signal analyzer for developing a time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission from said region, and for comparing the time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission to a time domain representation of electromagnetic emission from a corresponding region of a similar circuit board subject to the same time dependent test signals, the time domain representation of the sensed electromagnetic emission comprising a signal representing evolution of the sensed electromagnetic emission over a finite period of time. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
-
Specification