© 2008 Bloomy Controls. All Rights Reserved

Simplified ATE Operation for Production Test

Rob Putala

Sr. Systems Engineer

Bloomy Controls, Inc.

Test and measurement experts since 1992

Turnkey systems, consulting, and trainingNational Instruments Certifications

• Platinum Alliance Partner• Electronic Design Specialty• 5 Certified LabVIEW Developers• 13 Certified LabVIEW Architects• 3 Certified TestStand Developers & Architects• 12 Certified Professional Instructors

Wrote The LabVIEW Style Book

3 NI Certified Training Centers

About Bloomy Controls

Topic

• Historical progression of bench-top test systems

• Advantages of a real time controller to simplify bench-top test

Commercial Off The Shelf Instrumentation

DMMSignal Generator HiPotEtc…

Benchtop Test System

5

• Implemented by written test procedures

Hardcopy Test Procedures

6

• Read once

• Referenced on occasion

• On the fly edits to address problems

• Usually performed by local knowledge

Hardcopy Test Procedures

• Takes bench space

• Non-Production uses• email• parts lookup• surfing• games

• Support Costs

• Old OS’s

PC’s to control test equipment

8

PC’s to control test equipment

• PC Hardware advanced very fast

• Support Issues

ADD….

• Complex operation

• IT Support

• Support Costs

PC’s to control test equipment

• No Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse

• Test – Stop – Retest

• Pass - Fail

Headless ATE

Headless ATE

Single board RIO from National Instruments

• Reads pushbuttons

• Controls LEDs

• Operates COTS equipment

• Communicates with the central PC

• Processes raw data

• Executes real time OS

• LabVIEW RT

• Not prone to virus attack

• Reliable

Embedded Controller

• Controls Testing

• Collects Data

One customer reduced the PC count from seventeen to two!

System Architecture

• push the configuration and test set up

• sends commands to initiate testing

• receives pass/fail time-stamped data

• calculates overall SPC information

• provides status

• sends alarms

Supervisor Software

SPC Screen

System Status Screen

• Simple to use

• Reliable

• Repeatable test setup

• SPC Data Collection in real time

• Process variance is reduced

Advantages of Headless ATE

Contact Information

www.Bloomy.com