Compact ATE:
More efficient and reliable than manual bench testing

• Automates bench testing
• Test steps, values, and limits programmed in Microsoft Excel*
• Tests multiple products
• Self-contained desktop enclosure
• Small footprint: under four square feet
• 1U PC internal to the case
• Integral UPS
• Color touchscreen
• Keyboard/mouse in lockable drawer
• Fixture built into the lid
• Integral bar code readers
• Label printer for revision & SN stickers
• Sloped top eases fixture access

*"Microsoft" and "Excel" are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.

Has your company outgrown bench testing with its sprawling heaps of test instruments, notebooks full of instructions, rat's nests of test leads, and the sheer uncertainty of repeatable results? Circuit Check's "Compact ATE" system with built-in professional fixturing may be your solution. With Compact ATE, your test procedures become automatic, with test steps and go/nogo limits programmed in MS Excel*. Hand-probing is eliminated, replaced with accurate, repeatable tooling and reliable spring-loaded test probes.

There are many paybacks for converting from technician-performed bench-tests to automatic test:

• Improved first pass yields
• Improved test consistency
• Faster test throughput
• Reduced operator training requirements
• Automated test measurement logging
• Automated flash programming / rev control

Maximize capital utilization with
quick-change drop-ins

One of the keys to getting the maximum value out of your automated test equipment is using the same test gear and fixture mechanics to test multiple products. Circuit Check's Compact ATE platform achieves this by using interchangeable "drop-ins." These allow the same test platform to be quickly reconfigured with different tooling and probe patterns for different products. This maximizes equipment re-use, minimizing the cost for each new test.

CCI 689 four-up flash station

• Flashes four DUTs* simultaneously
• Up to four different devices per DUT*
• Self-contained desktop enclosure
• Small footprint: under four square feet
• 1U PC internal to the case
• Integral UPS
• Color touchscreen
• Keyboard/mouse in lockable drawer
• Fixture built into the lid
• Integral bar code readers
• Label printer for revision & SN stickers
• Sloped top eases fixture access
• Drop-in personality plates for re-use

*DUT: "Device Under Test" - a product being tested or programmed

Today’s dense flash memories hold large binary image files, with long flash programming times. The CCI-689 lets you move flash programming from your functional test systems, speeding test times, improving capital utilization.

Built to your specifications, the CCI-689 can flash four DUTs at once, with up to four flash devices each. Depending on the programming hardware specified, some functional testing may also be built into your CCI-689.

Industrial ATE:
 

End-of-line testing

Manufacturers worldwide use Circuit Check functional test systems for their end-of-line flash programming, calibrations, and final functional tests. Circuit Check is the world's largest fully-integrated test system supplier, providing a complete spectrum of test products and services:

• Functional test design
• Test fixture design and fabrication
• Test system design and fabrication
• Test program development
• Processor-controlled test firmware development
• ANOVA gage repeatability and reproducibility assessment
• Process capability (Cpk) studies
• On-site support and service worldwide

RF Chamber Functional Test

• RF Chambers with up to -85dB isolation
• Tests two chambers asynchronously
• Custom built with any specified test gear
• Drop-ins maximize equipment re-use

Circuit Check builds a variety of RF Chamber Test Systems, with every type of commercial radio band from 433 MHz to 24 GHz. Our experience runs from NIST-traceable certification tests using the latest test gear, to inexpensive, high-throughput functional verification tests using mirrored DUTs, binary-search attenuation, and packet error rates to determine proper modulation, frequency, and power.

Automation & Robotics:
Test Systems with Automation & Robotics

Production-line test

Circuit Check's mechanical engineering capability is unparallelled in the test industry. A good example is shown on the left. This is a completely custom-built, conveyorized component test system. Every thirteen seconds, it pulls in a tray of eight components, performs 150 measurements on each one, and pushes a finished tray to a reject removal station where a color screen guides an operator to pull out any failed parts. (That's a test time of 1.625 seconds per part!) These systems run 24 hours a day, six days per week, with a design life of ten years. The measurements include a proprietary Circuit Check HIPOT test which proves the continuity of transformer windings while simultaneously testing their insulation at +2,250 volts DC.

The Circuit Check team knows how to hit the ground running. This system progressed from the initial design meeting to a delivered custom test system in only four months and nine days.

Automated chip test

This custom chip test system contains the largest synchronized array of National Instruments "6552" 100MHz digital I/O boards ever assembled. It also uses a Circuit Check-designed custom load board with a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA running at 500MHz as a programmable multiplexer/level-shifter between the NI boards and the BGA test socket. The system was initially brought up and debugged using NI LabVIEW and the companion TSSI TD-Scan waveform translation package. The final production software, written entirely in VB.NET 2008, was co-developed by Circuit Check and the end user.

Force/torque measurement

This system measures the constituents determining the "feel" of pushbuttons and encoder knobs on washing machine and dryer control consoles. The "feel" of the buttons is determined by how stiff a force is needed to depress the button, how far the button must be pushed before it snaps, and how distinct the snap is from any squeaking or chattering the button gives off during the stroke. See the sample graph of a button with some chattering. These recorded Force/Distance curves are automatically interpreted in software developed by Circuit Check, using algorithms employing digital signal processing techniques and integral calculus.

The torque measurements reveal how distinctly the knob's detents are felt, by comparing the measured torque peaks to the measured torque valleys. These measurements are reported in delta Newton-Centimeters.