Automated Test Equipment Specifications

Help with Automated Test Equipment specifications:

Type / Form Factor

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	Test Platform / System		A piece of electronic equipment designed to test chips to check if they work, and if so, how well (usually how fast) they work. Testers are usually specialized as either memory chip testers, digital logic chip testers, or analog chip testers, though some of the more sophisticated testers can deal with more than one of these groups.  Testers consist of a test control unit or panel and test head.  Testers are used in conjunction with interfaces, source and measure units, handlers or probers. The interface or connection system to provides electrical paths to the device under test (DUT) for stimuli (input) signals and measurement (output) signals. Source units provide a source signal or stimuli input. Measurement units measure the output signal from the component or DUT.
	Test Module / Sub-system		Test modules, sub-systems or units include load banks; gas supply systems; test controllers; meters, monitors, data acquisition unit or measurement modules; ovens, chillers or other temperature controllers; and moisture or humidity controllers.
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	Options / Module Types:
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	Measure Unit / Monitor		Test equipment module or unit that measures or monitors the output signal from the component or DUT.
	Source Module / Unit		Test equipment module or unit that provide provides a source signal or stimuli input.
	Handler / Prober		An electro-mechanical machine or sub-system that is designed to move, position and sort packaged devices (chips that have been cut from a wafer, bonded with wire connectors and packaged with insulating material) during package test. Probers or wafer probers are devices that handle, transport and position silicon wafers during the test process.
	Interface / Fixture System		Probe card, performance interface board, test socket or contactor unit provide the electrical connection between the device under test (DUT) and the tester.  The probe card or printed circuit board has needles, blades or probes attached which provides the electrical interface between the DUT and the spring contact array in the prober-tester interface (PTI).  The PTI is a controlled impedance electrical connection between the test head and the probe card (minimal capacitance, inductance and DC resistance).
	Load Bank / Electronic Load		The unit has an electronic load or DC resistive load bank. Automated testing equipment for power supplies typically require a load.
	Test Software / Program Generator		Tester has the ability to receive CAD information for the generation of test control programs.   The tester may have a library of test programs for tester control or the ability to generate test programs.
	Specialty / Other		Other unlisted, proprietary, patented or specialized test equipment type or form factor.
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Components / Products Tested

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	Active Components / Semiconductors		Discrete ATEs test active components including transistors, diodes, MOSFETs, regulators, triacs, Zeners, SCRs, and J-FETs.
	Audio Equipment		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of audio equipment.
	Avionics / Military Electronics		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of avionics or military electronics.
	Boards - Loaded PCB		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of complete printed circuit boards or assemblies loaded or populated with the required active and passive components.
	Boards - Bare PCB		Bare board testers are used to detect the completeness of a PCB circuit before assembly and wave solder.
	Cable & Harness / Backplanes		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of cables, wiring harnesses, backplanes or networking loops (copper loops, twisted pair lines). Used to detect opens (missing connections), shorts (open connections) and miswires (wrong pins) on cable harnesses, distribution panels, wiring looms, flexible circuits and membrane switch panels with commonly used connector configurations. Also, test equipment designed for evaluating computer backplanes, chassis or motherboards.
	Displays / Video Equipment		Test equipment designed for evaluation or performance testing of display (LED, OLED, LCD, plasma, CRT), display drivers and other video or vision equipment (digital or analog).
	Linear / Mixed Signal (Analog)		For the testing of linear, mixed signal or other analog components such as analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), digital-to-analog converters (DACs), comparators, track-and-hold amplifiers and video products.  These components incorporate features such as, audio interfaces, signal processing functions and high-speed transceivers.
	Logic ICs		Logic test systems are designed for handling the testing of microprocessors, gate arrays, ASICs and other logic devices.
	Medical Electronics		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of pacemakers or other critical medical electronic components.
	Memory		Test equipment for the testing of SDRAM, DDR-SDRAM SIMMs and DIMMs.
	MEMS / Sensors		Test equipment for the testing of MEMS, pressure sensors, accelerometers or other electromechanical sensor or devices.
	Networking / Communications		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of network routers, switches, hubs or other types of network components and communications equipment.
	Optoelectronics / Fiber Optics		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of photodiodes, lasers, laser diodes, photovoltaic cells or modules, fiber optic switches and other optoelectronic components.
	Passive Components		Passive Component ATEs test passive components including capacitors, resistors, inductors etc. Typically testing is done by the application of a test current.
	Power Supplies / Transformers		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of AC power supplies, AC-DC power converters, transformers, UPS systems, battery chargers, rectifiers, inverters or other power supplies.
	RF & Microwave		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of RF, microwave and other wireless components or equipment.
	System-On-Chip (SOC)		System-on-chip (SOC) devices consist of one or more processor cores, embedded memories, peripheral interfaces, and sometimes mixed signal circuits integrated onto a single chip to form a complete or nearly complete system.
	Telematics / Automotive		Test equipment designed for evaluating the performance of telematic or automotive electronics or electrical components. Telematics is a wireless communications system designed for the collection and dissemination of data. Applications include vehicle-based electronic systems, mobile telephony, vehicle tracking and positioning, on-line navigation and information services and emergency assistance. Static applications include stock control (automatic ordering), and monitoring of utilities meters.
	Specialty / Other		Other unlisted, proprietary or specialized equipment or component types that can be tested.
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Test / Technique

	Tester / Test Capability:
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	Functional Test (Performance)		A functional test simulates an operating environment and tests a board against its functional specification.   The functional test method applies pattern vectors to a device and checks the output to determine that the device is operating according to its truth table.
	Life / Endurance Testing		Test equipment can perform life or endurance testing. Life testing may be conventional or highly accelerated to reduce test time.
	Parametric / In-process		Parametric, wafer sort or other in-process tests are the measurement and verification of terminal voltage and current characteristics at a device pin.
	Manufacturing Defect Analyzer (MDA)		Manufacturing defects are detected using manufacturing defect analyzers (MDAs), such as shorts and missing components, but they cannot test digital ICs as they test with the unit under test (UUT) powered down (cold).  As a result, they assume the ICs are good.  MDAs are also referred to as analog circuit testers.
	In-Circuit Tester (ICT)		This type of test tests components that are part of a board assembly.  The components under test are "in a circuit."  The unit under test (UUT) is powered up (hot).  Also referred to as digital circuit testers.
	Simulation / Emulation		Test systems that provide simulation or emulation of a product in order to test a component interfacing with the simulated or emulated product. An emulator is a device, computer program, or system that accepts the same inputs and produces the same outputs as a given system.
	JTAG / Boundary-Scan		JTAG or boundary scan test methodology allows complete controllability and observability of the boundary (I/O) pins via a standard interface.  With boundary-scan testing the user can test interconnections on PCBs without using a probe on each node. Evaluations may include device level testing as well as mixed, real, and virtual pin circuit tests. JTAG is an acronym for Joint Test Action Group ("jay-tag"). Originally, JTAG was the name of the team developing the method, now the term has come to be associated with the output of the team. JTAG is now essentially synonymous with the IEEE 1149.1 standard for Test Access Port and Boundary Scan.
	Vectorless (e.g., Q-test)		Vectorless test do not use a pattern vector test method as is applied in the functional test process. Aeroflex's Q-testsTM methodology is an example of the vectorless test method for detecting open-circuits, which form a large category of manufacturing faults.  Vectorless or Q-testsTM test methods detects open-circuits on custom or complex devices where no access or data is available for full test generation. Vectorless tests typically use either capacitive or inductive probing techniques.
	Vision / X-ray		X-ray instruments and optical or vision inspection systems are used to detect physical surface or sub-surface defects. Optical inspection methods include scanning probe microscopes to reveal surface defects. X-ray inspection instruments can detect sub-surface defects by looking through insulation layers that are optically opaque.  X-ray and optical inspections don't need test fixtures and require no electrical sources or measurements to find open connections or shorts.  However, some optical or thermal imaging instruments are coupled with electrical sources to find hot spots in circuits.
	Other		Other unlisted, proprietary or patented test or method.
	Search Logic:		All products with ANY of the selected attributes will be returned as matches. Leaving all boxes unchecked will not limit the search criteria for this question; products with all attribute options will be returned as matches.
	DUT Interfacing / Adapters:
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	Bed-of-Nails (BON) / Grid		Each circuit net on the board is connected to the tester, typically with one nail per net. BONs typically require a vacuum or air source.
	Flying Prober / Scanner		Also known as a flying probe or floating probe. Flying probers are used for open and shorts testing. The flying probe system uses a low number of moving probes rather than the high number of fixed probes in the BON.  Test times may be slower due to probe movements, but the method has compensating benefits. In practice, a flying probe can provide close to 100% test coverage on a board with thousands of nets of passive components and hundreds of digital devices
	Optical Connector		Optical connections or interfaces are utilized for evaluation of optoelectronic, fiber optic or photonic equipment.
	Performance Board / Probe Card		Performance interface board, DUT load board or probe cards are specialized printed circuit boards used to test semiconductor or passive components.
	Specialty Connection / Adapter		Unlisted, specialized, or proprietary configuration.
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Features

	Features
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	Burn-in		Test equipment has the ability to burn-in the device or board during testing. Burn-in testing is used on high power devices and typically requires temperature control unit. The temperature control unit keeps high-powered chips from overheating during the burn-in test process.
	C-V Measurements		Test equipment has capacitance vs. voltage measurement capability.
	Fault Diagnostics / Logic Analysis		Tester having fault diagnostics, logic analysis or debugging capability.
	I-V Measurements		Test equipment has voltage and current measurement capability.
	Resistance / Impedance		Test equipment has resistance and impedance measurement capability.
	Self-calibration / Test Verification		Tester, source unit, measure unit or sub-system has the ability to perform self-calibration or test verification.
	SPC Reporting		Records, analyzes, tracks and provides statistical process control reports.
	Supports STDF		Standard test data format (STDF) is an industry standard data format invented by Teradyne.
	Temperature Controller		The tester has the ability to control the temperature of the unit under test using controllers and heaters, ovens, cooling units or chillers.
	Specialty / Other		Other unlisted, proprietary or patented feature.
	Search Logic:		All products with ANY of the selected attributes will be returned as matches. Leaving all boxes unchecked will not limit the search criteria for this question; products with all attribute options will be returned as matches.

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