In-Circuit Test & Flying Probe Test

Feb 01, 2006 1 Replies

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We are a small CM and are researching In-Circuit Testers and Flying Probe Testers. We need to have integrated testing capability for our customers. There are few third party test facilities left and none are local to us. We are looking on the used market since we do not want to expend huge amounts of capital or tie our hands with too large of a loan. There are two caveats, Genrad sucks and Takiya is a piece of s*it.

In ICT we are down to:

Agilent 3070 Teradyne Z1880 Teradyne Z8800

Flying Probe: Spea 4400 Acculogic Seica

I like the Z8800 (Spectrum?) because it is a VXI backplane. The Z1880 though has a lot going for it especially in cost, both system cost and fixturing cost. The Agilent is pricey but seems to have more industry acceptance.

As for the flying probes I am leaning towards Spea but have no real experience with them.

Has anyone used these machines? What are the upsides and downsides of each. I am tired of hearing sales pitches I want actual user input.

Will I get any return on my investment? Is In-circuit a dying technology for digital boards given the JTAG tools available?

Hello Slinger,

Can't comment on the testers except that I am partial to Teradyne since that's what was usually used on my boards, and worked. A long, long time ago since the new ones don't need ICT anymore.

Designers like me strive to achieve as much self-diagnosis on the board as possible. I think the last time I designed a full-blown test set plus ICT hook-ups was in the late 80's. Digital boards use less of ICT than they used to. An example was a scan converter. It used to be a huge conglomerate of chips, maybe 200 or so. The next revision was largely a blank board (had to keep the size to fit into a three-high rack slot) with very few driver chips and two big fat FPGA with JTAG.

Regards, Joerg

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In-Circuit Test & Flying Probe Test

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