Functional test survey uncovers need for diagnostic tools, faster test
A recent short survey of ScanWorks users regarding functional test and emulator technology showed that test engineers are being pressured to speed up manufacturing test while, at the same time, they feel that their diagnostic tools for functional test are inadequate for determining the root causes of faults.
 A whopping 93 percent of respondents to the survey said they are looking for ways to speed up manufacturing test. Apparently, many test engineers have tried to find better diagnostic tools, but to
little avail. Some 86 percent of respondents to the survey said that their functional test methodology does not provide sufficient diagnostic information to isolate manufacturing faults to their root causes.
With such a dire need for diagnostic tools, one would expect that many hardware engineers would be confronted with a big “bone” pile of faulty and undiagnosed boards. Approximately 65 percent said they did indeed have a pile of dead circuit boards that had passed structural tests, but failed functional test.
The survey also touched on the topic of emulators and their use to debug software, to program flash memory, and to test circuit boards and systems. Respondents revealed that a significant number (63 percent) have deployed emulators to debug software. Almost as many (54 percent) said they were already using or planning to use emulators to test circuit boards or systems. Only 39 percent indicated emulators had been deployed to program flash memories.
Built-in self test (BIST) was also called upon to validate the functionality of on-board devices and buses by more than half (56 percent) of the engineers who responded to the survey. But when it came to manufacturing test, only 44 percent said they were using BIST as a manufacturing test technology.
For participating in the survey, the respondents were entered into a drawing for a $200 gift certificate to NewEgg.com and they were able to download white papers, applications notes, training videos, data sheets and other information sources, as well as access ASSET’s recent webcast with Test and Measurement World Magazine on “Maximizing Your Test Coverage.” (To view the archived version of this webcast, click here.)
And, stay tuned to the next issue of Connect to find out who won the $200 gift certificate.
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