While the application excludes automatic handling equipment, there nevertheless is a striking resemblance between tester applications employing people for the handling of devices and applications that utilize robots for moving parts on the basis of the outcome of the test. Indeed, the screens pertaining to the TestBox are a subset of the screens that cover IC Handler utilization.

Before either of the aforementioned screens can be utilized, we must ‘build’ the test using AutoTest Setup. There we generate our test by picking commands from a menu. Some of these commands, such as DUT CONTINUITY and FUNCTIONAL are self-contained provided you associate the proper SET file and TRN (Vector) file with the command. Other commands may require further association. For instance, DC PMU tests such VOH test must be associated with a PMU test defined for the particular set file. This test will be attached to the command using the Attach button.

In this way you can structure a complex TestSuite, applying multiple sub-tests associated with multiple SET files and Vector files. When done, you save the file with the default extension .ATX and exit the AutoTest Setup screen. We presume you maintained the default QuickLoad which lets you utilize the ETS vector memory as a cache for all the vector files you are using for the test (if your memory modules are not sufficiently large to hold all the vector files, you must uncheck the QuickLoad option).

Upon entering the TestBox window, we load all vector files into the tester memory. Sub-tests using the same vector files will share the vector space in the ETS memory. The obvious benefit of this mechanism is that we don’t need to download vector files during execution of the test, resulting in extremely fast deployment of multiple vector files.

You next press Start and you are ready to run the test by pressing the button on the TestBox. Each sub-test will indicate pass/fail, and the final outcome of the test will be celebrated by a big green smiling face or bemoaned by a big red sad face.

The time (with millisecond resolution and the accuracy of a crystal oscillator) taken to execute each sub-test is indicated adjacent to each check-mark.

Branching is also supported. For instance, if a test fails, it may take an alternate path to further ascertain the type of failure. Or, in the case of failing continuity, you may skip the rest of the tests and go straight to END; there is typically no need to run the rest of the tests if the part is not connected.

Also See:
Q'nApp #L3: HILEVEL Production Floor
Q'nApp #L11: The Many Faceted TestBox

QL12.zip is a zipped Word file of this Q'nApp.