Method and apparatus for pin assignment in automatic circuit testers
First Claim
1. A method of making electrical connections between board probes and system contacts of a test fixture associated with a given type of circuit board that includes board components to be tested, the test fixture including board probes so positioned with respect to each other as to enable them simultaneously to contact predetermined test nodes respectively associated therewith on a circuit board of the given circuit-board type, the test fixture also including a corresponding plurality of system contacts so positioned with respect to each other as to enable them simultaneously to contact respective system pins associated therewith in a multiplexed automatic circuit tester that includes system resources and the system pins, which are organized into pin groups, in each of which less than all of the pins in the pin group can be connected to separate system resources simultaneously, the method comprising the steps of:
- A) generating, independently of the results of test generation for the circuit-board type, a conflict list for each of a plurality of board components to be tested;
B) employing the lists thus generated as inputs to a pin-assignment program to generate connection lists that pair board probes with system contacts; and
C) wiring the board probes to the system pins in accordance with the connection lists.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The wiring of system contacts (18) to board probes (20) on a fixture (16) that is used to connect nodes of a board under test to system pins (14) of a multiplexed circuit tester (10) is performed independently of test generation for the type of circuit board with which the fixture (16) is associated. Conflict lists that the pin-assignment program uses to determine which system contacts to wire to which board probes are generated without using the output of the program for generating the board test. For driver/sensor probes, a conflict list for the in-circuit test of a given device includes all input and output nodes of that device as well as all input nodes of devices whose output terminals are connected to nodes of the device under test. The resulting wiring results in few conflicts without requiring many more tester resources than conventional pin-assignment approaches do, and it can be employed without adding to manufacturing lead time.
15 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method of making electrical connections between board probes and system contacts of a test fixture associated with a given type of circuit board that includes board components to be tested, the test fixture including board probes so positioned with respect to each other as to enable them simultaneously to contact predetermined test nodes respectively associated therewith on a circuit board of the given circuit-board type, the test fixture also including a corresponding plurality of system contacts so positioned with respect to each other as to enable them simultaneously to contact respective system pins associated therewith in a multiplexed automatic circuit tester that includes system resources and the system pins, which are organized into pin groups, in each of which less than all of the pins in the pin group can be connected to separate system resources simultaneously, the method comprising the steps of:
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A) generating, independently of the results of test generation for the circuit-board type, a conflict list for each of a plurality of board components to be tested; B) employing the lists thus generated as inputs to a pin-assignment program to generate connection lists that pair board probes with system contacts; and C) wiring the board probes to the system pins in accordance with the connection lists. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method for producing a fixture for connecting test nodes of one or more board components under test on a circuit board with system pins of a multiplexed circuit tester, the fixture including board probes configured to simultaneously contact predetermined test nodes respectively associated therewith on the circuit board, and system contacts configured to simultaneously contact predetermined system pins respectively associated therewith on the circuit tester, the method comprising the steps of:
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1) generating in-circuit test programs; 2) generating, independently of said step
1), a conflict list for each of the one or more board components under test;3) determining pin assignments utilizing said conflict list; and 4) wiring the board probes to the system contacts in accordance with said pin assignments. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification