#S14


Q: Can I use Symphony for high volume production testing?




There is a striking resemblance between tester applications employing people for the handling of devices and applications that utilize robots. In either case, the robot or the person places a device in the socket, signals the tester when ready, and puts the part in an appropriate tray or bin upon completion of the test depending on its outcome. Hence, the functional requirement for high-speed testing is virtually identical to low-speed test requirements. Only the time element is a major difference. Hence, Q’nApp #S12 applies directly to High Volume testing as well, only without sufficient throughput.

An obvious prerequisite to high-speed testing, then, is high throughput, i.e. the number of devices tested per minute. To achieve high throughput, multiple DC PMU’s is a prerequisite. So is deep vector memory.

The ETS880 provides up to 32 PMU’s per system. At no time need we operate more than 32 PMU tests in sequence; indeed, judicial selection of pins can significantly reduce the number of test sequences. Indeed, 100 signal pins which requires 100 PMU test sequences with a single DC PMU may require only 4 PMU sequences when using the Griffin or TITAN. Effectively, the PMU tests become nearly 20 times faster! However, there is a diminishing return to adding PMU’s while the cost is proportional to the number of PMU’s.

The Griffin and TITAN testers have vector memory depth up to 64M. For production testing, 1M of vector memory or more is often necessary.

Accuracy cannot be dispensed with despite the need for high throughput, lest yield will be reduced. Hence, the HiLevel PMU’s are high precision instruments that only a combination of mechanical relays, high precision resistors (0.05% accuracy), instrumentation op amps, and high resolution DAC’s (12 bits) can produce.

All in all, the HiLevel system with multiple PMUs is superbly suited to high volume production testing.

Also See:

Q'nApp #S3: The HiLevel Production Floor
Q'nApp #S11 and #S12: The HiLevel TestBox
Q'nApp #S18: Prober Fixtures
Q'nApp #S37: MultiSite
Q'nApp #S51: Fast Continuity
The HiLevel ACT Manual

Qs14.zip is a zipped Word file of this Q'nApp.

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© 2006 HILEVEL Technology Inc.