-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueOpportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
Manufacturing Know-how
For this issue, we asked our expert contributors to share their thoughts on the absolute “must-know” aspects of fab, assembly and test that all designers should understand. In the end, we’re all in this together.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
The Test Connection: Spreading the Word About DFT
December 7, 2022 | Andy Shaughnessy, PCB Design007Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
As signal speeds continue to increase and feature sizes decrease, PCB designers are beginning to pay greater attention to test and design for test (DFT) strategies. Bert Horner, president of The Test Connection in Hunt Valley, Maryland, is spearheading this drive to show designers the benefits of a solid DFT plan, as well as the downside of not having a test strategy.
I met with Bert at PCB Carolina, where he was exhibiting and presenting a paper during the conference. We discussed his presentation, as well as why designers need to understand test and DFT issues, and why we need to see the PCB as one small—but very important—part of the entire system.
Andy Shaughnessy: Bert, it’s nice to see you. It’s been a while.
Bert Horner: Thank you for speaking with us today. It’s been a really good show.
Shaughnessy: Yes, it’s packed in here. You just gave a presentation, so why don’t you tell me about your class content and the response you received?
Horner: The Test Connection sees an opportunity to promote test strategy and design for test. As you know, we’re working with I-Connect007, writing a book about testing. I took a subset of that on test strategies for my presentation here today. It whets their taste buds and incorporates a thought pattern on test—starting with the design process. We hope it’s a good starting point for what we will cover in the book on test strategies. Right now, we’re at a point where we can bring that to fruition with some designers. Designers don’t always know what is happening on the back end, so we want to help them get more familiar with test protocols and test solutions and inspection as well.
Shaughnessy: For a lot of designers, test has traditionally been something of an afterthought.
Horner: Yes. We’re trying to encourage the design for test (DFT) with a test strategy that starts as early as the schematic level. We use ASTER TestWay, but Siemens EDA has a similar tool and there is another tool out there as well. Designers are starting to address this. We think they can save money in the long term by spending a little bit of time and money throughout the design process.
Shaughnessy: I heard that one attendee asked a question, and it triggered a long Q&A session.
Horner: Yes, we had a question about in-circuit test and boundary scan being done at the same time, which started a snowball of questions, and it was a lot of exciting conversations. It wasn’t just me and the audience, but audience member to audience member. It’s fun to be involved in those kinds of presentations, and I could see that there was a demand for DFT and test strategies among designers.
Shaughnessy: It sounds like there’s a definite thirst for knowledge about test.
Horner: It’s time, and we’re here to quench that thirst. They’re seeing that DFT can save them time and effort, and the exposure of lost revenue and the fear of being known in the industry for shipping a bad product goes a long way.
Shaughnessy: Right. A lot of people just looked at it as test. It wasn’t seen as a value add because it’s not necessarily making the board “better,” but you’ve got to look at it from a big picture perspective.
Horner: Yes, that’s right. The board is only a component of the whole system, and if you don’t build that component, you run the risk of not having a working unit.
Shaughnessy: How has your year been going at Test Connection?
Horner: For Test Connection, 2022 has been a very good year for us. We continue to see growth. We do see the supply chain challenges, but we’re able to navigate through this and be able to offer a test solution in a timely fashion.
Shaughnessy: Great. Anything else you want to add?
Horner: The economy is always in question, but the industry as a whole is undergoing a bit of a renaissance, as we hope some of the technology comes back to North America. We’re positioned to help support that need.
Shaughnessy: All right. Good talking to you.
Horner: You too, Andy.
Suggested Items
SMTA’s Conducts First UHDI Symposium
03/29/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineSMTA’s first UHDI Symposium in Peoria, Arizona, on Tuesday, March 26 featured a standout full-day technical program with 11 separate presentations on what will be required for our companies to move to ultra HDI manufacturing. The event was the brainchild of Tara Dunn, SMTA director of training and education. It included a compelling and collaborative presentation by David Haboud of Altium, John Johnson of American Standards Circuits, and Chrys Shea of Shea Engineering, who had spent the past several weeks creating and building an appropriate SMT test board vehicle for UHDI, something that was passed around for all conference goers to see and touch.
PCBflow Helps Designers Choose Best Manufacturer for the Job
03/28/2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineI recently spoke with a few technologists who have first-hand experience with PCBflow: Susan Kayesar, technical product manager with Siemens; Evgeny Makhline, CTO of Nistec, a CEM based in Israel; and Peter Tranitz, senior director of technology solutions and leader of the IPC Design Initiative. They explain how PCBflow functions, from the designer’s and manufacturer’s viewpoint, and how this database helps break down the wall between these stakeholders.
Elementary, Mr. Watson: Ensuring Design Integrity
03/28/2024 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonBack in February, many of us watched the "Big Game." It reminded me of the saying, “It's not how you start that is important, but rather how you finish." It is perfectly okay when you are talking about sports, you get off to a bad first half and need to recover in the second half. However, when it comes to PCB design, this is not a good practice. If things start badly, they usually don't recover. They continue down that same path, costing more money and losing design time.
Arrow Electronics Launches Intelligent Vision Ecosystem
03/27/2024 | BUSINESS WIREArrow Electronics, Inc. is utilizing the onsemi Imager Access System (IAS) module standard for developing intelligent vision solutions for use in robotics, machine vision, commercial cameras and other uses.
Dymax Will Exhibit Light-Cure Solutions for Today’s Electronics at IPC APEX 2024
03/26/2024 | DymaxDymax, a leading manufacturer of rapid and light-curing materials and equipment, will exhibit at the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 in Anaheim, CA, April 9-11.