Timing calibration and timing calibration verification of electronic circuit testers
First Claim
1. A system for calibrating an electronic circuit tester, comprising:
- a substrate mountable on a test head of an electronic circuit tester, the test head having a plurality of test connectors terminating substantially in a plane;
a connector interface disposed on the substrate and comprising a plurality of test connector contact pads exposed for electrical contact with the test connectors; and
a calibration circuit supported by the substrate, electrically connected to the connector interface, and operable to connect test connectors to a source of a calibration reference signal and to one or more selected test connectors in accordance with protocols for calibrating the electronic circuit tester to the plane of the test connectors and verifying calibration of the electronic circuit tester.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for calibrating the timing of electronic circuit testers and verifying the timing calibration of electronic circuit testers are described. In some embodiments, a calibration reference signal is transmitted from the test head directly through the load board interface, rather than through external instruments, so that timing errors associated with external wires and cables may be avoided. The timing calibration and timing calibration verification functionality is provided on a single calibration board, thereby reducing the calibration set-up time relative to conventional robot-based calibrators. In addition, a high pin count electronic circuit testers may be calibrated by a calibration board that is configured to calibrate one subset of the test channels at a time. In some embodiments, test channels are connected directly to calibration board comparators to avoid the accumulated signal degradation and the signal path route errors that may result from transmitting tester channel signals through a mechanical relay selection matrix.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A system for calibrating an electronic circuit tester, comprising:
-
a substrate mountable on a test head of an electronic circuit tester, the test head having a plurality of test connectors terminating substantially in a plane;
a connector interface disposed on the substrate and comprising a plurality of test connector contact pads exposed for electrical contact with the test connectors; and
a calibration circuit supported by the substrate, electrically connected to the connector interface, and operable to connect test connectors to a source of a calibration reference signal and to one or more selected test connectors in accordance with protocols for calibrating the electronic circuit tester to the plane of the test connectors and verifying calibration of the electronic circuit tester. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A system for calibrating an electronic circuit tester, comprising:
-
a substrate mountable on a test head of an electronic circuit tester, the test head having a plurality of test channel connectors coupled to test channels of the electronic circuit tester and one or more calibration reference signal connectors coupled to a source of a calibration reference signal synchronized with a clock generator of the electronic circuit tester, the test channel connectors and the one or more calibration reference signal connectors terminating substantially in a plane;
a connector interface disposed on the substrate and comprising a plurality of test channel contact pads exposed for electrical contact with the test channel connectors, and one or more calibration reference signal pads exposed for electrical contact with the calibration reference signal connectors; and
a calibration circuit supported by the substrate, electrically connected to the connector interface, and operable to connect test channel connectors to one or more calibration reference signal connectors in accordance with a protocol for calibrating the electronic circuit tester to the plane of the test head connectors. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A system for calibrating an electronic circuit tester, comprising:
-
a substrate mountable on a test head of an electronic circuit tester, the test head having a plurality of test connectors terminating substantially in a plane;
a connector interface disposed on the substrate and comprising a plurality of test connector contact pads exposed for electrical contact with the test connectors; and
a calibration circuit supported by the substrate, electrically connected to the connector interface, and comprising a plurality of comparators each connected directly to a respective test connector contact pad of the connector interface. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
-
-
19. An electronic circuit tester system, comprising:
-
a clock generator;
a calibration reference signal generator configured to generate a calibration reference signal synchronized with the test channel clock generator; and
a test head defining a plurality of test channels and having a plurality of test channel connectors coupled to the test channels and one or more calibration reference signal connectors coupled to the calibration reference signal generator, the test channel connectors and the one or more calibration reference signal connectors terminating substantially in a plane. - View Dependent Claims (20)
-
Specification