Diagnostic testing of circuit cards with robotic prober

Manual probing of circuit cards is inherently error prone and can result in erroneous identification of components, as faulty. As a result, retest is required and test station throughput is reduced when probing is required, the program must 'interrupt' and display instruction to the operator, who will then consult reference documents to aid in locating the probe point. Once the probe is placed, he must then initiate a 'proceed' command. During this process, it is assumed that the operator has placed the probe on the correct test point and applied sufficient pressure to make contact. These uncertainties can introduce errors that the robotic element has the potential to eliminate. This investigation has sought to significantly improve accuracy and reduce testing time for Circuit Card Assemblies (CCAs), using an automatically controlled Robotic Probe. The technology is in place to incorporate robotics into a diagnostic test program utilizing Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) VXI test equipment, operating in Graphical User Interface (GUI) test environment. During this study, COTS hardware and software was incorporated into a VXI test station and a circuit card was tested utilizing a LabView test program and Robotic Prober. Robotic probing provided at least a 10:1 improvement in probing time over manual probing. In addition, it eliminated the need for documentation to locate probe points and it reliably made contact without error. This 10:1 improvement is offered as a significant achievement accomplished with a VXI Tester, utilizing a maximum of COTS hardware and software.