Automatic Test Equipment Research Articles

Focus on test, measurement, and data acquisition

Focus on test, measurement, and data acquisition

Simulation of Thermal Behaviour of a Lithium Titanate Oxide Battery

One of the reasonable possibilities to investigate the battery behaviour under various temperature and current conditions is the development of a model of the lithium-ion batteries and then by employing the simulation technique to anticipate their behaviour. This method not only can save time but also they can predict the behaviour of the batteries through simulation. In this investigation, a three-dimensional model is developed to simulate thermal and electrochemical behaviour of a 13Ah lithium-ion battery. In addition, the temperature dependency of the battery cell parameters was considered in the model in order to investigate the influence of temperature on various parameters such as heat generation during battery cell operation. Maccor automated test system and isothermal battery calorimeter were used as experimental setup to validate the thermal model, which was able to predict the heat generation rate and temperature at different positions of the battery. The three-dimensional temperature distributions which were achieved from the modelling and experiment were in well agreement with each other throughout the entire of discharge cycling at different environmental temperatures and discharge rates.

Automatic cloud service testing and bottleneck detection system with scaling recommendation

SummaryPerformance problems in a cloud service are difficult to diagnose because they may be caused by various system components. This study proposes an automatic cloud service testing and bottleneck detection system that is applicable to different types of services. With the proposed test module, the user can customize test scenarios to automatically test and collect the corresponding metrics of the target service. Afterward, the proposed bottleneck detection algorithm analyzes the collected metrics and determines whether a bottleneck is presented in the target system. The bottleneck detection module also provides a scaling recommendation for the service provider to facilitate the service system reconfiguration. The experimental results reveal that the proposed system could detect a potential bottleneck in a service system accurately. In accordance with the scaling recommendation, the performance of the target cloud service can be improved efficiently after reconfiguration. Therefore, usage of the proposed system can ensure a high quality of service, and the service level objective could be fulfilled.

Variability of food waste chemical composition: Impact of thermal pre-treatment on lignocellulosic matrix and anaerobic biodegradability

A comprehensive sustainable Food Waste (FW) management is globally needed in order to reduce the environmental pollution and the financial costs due to FW disposal; anaerobic digestion is considered as one of the best environmental-friendly alternatives to this aim. A deep investigation of the chemical composition of different Food waste types (cooked kitchen waste (CKW), fruit and vegetable scraps (FVS) and organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW)) is here reported, in order to evaluate their relevant substance-specific properties and their impact on anaerobic biodegradability by means of a sophisticated automatic batch test system. Suitability for a mild thermal pre-treatment (T = 134 °C and p = 3.2 bar) to enhance the biological degradation of hardly accessible compounds was investigated. The pre-treatment affected significantly the carbohydrates solubilisation, and was able in reducing part of the lignocellulosic matrix. Moreover, in mesophilic conditions, the high solubilized sugars content favoured the initial recovery of hydrogen (not consumed by hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis), allowing to newly assess the extent of prompt fermentability. Pre-treatment enhanced hydrogen yields of FVS and OFMSW, with gains up to +50%, while the successive methane production, occurring in the same reactor, resulted affected by the lack of the soluble part of carbohydrates, “subtracted” for H2 production. Only in thermophilic conditions, when no hydrogen in the biogas was detected, pre-treatment of OFMSW significantly increased methane yield (from 0.343 to 0.389 L CH4 g−1 VSfed). A thermal pre-treatment seems the recommended solution in order to reduce part of the recalcitrant lignocellulosic matrix of food waste, to improve energy recovery and to eliminate the extra cost needed for pasteurization.

On-Chip Self-Test Methodology With All Deterministic Compressed Test Patterns Recorded in Scan Chains

This paper presents a novel test architecture that combines the advantages of high-quality deterministic scan-based test and low-cost built-in self-test. The main idea is to record (store) all required compressed test data in a novel scan chain structure, and extract and decompress them during testing. This requires a very high compression ratio to obtain a low test data volume, that is, smaller than the number of scan cells in the circuit under test. To achieve such a high compression ratio, we propose a novel compression method that combines broadcast scan as well as a tailored single-input compression architecture. We also utilize the concept of scan chain partitioning and clock gating to reduce the test time and test power. An on-chip test controller is employed to automatically generate all required control signals for the whole test procedure. This significantly reduces the requirements on external automatic test equipment. Experimental results show that our method is well suitable for multicore designs. For example, experiments on the 8-core open-source OpenSPARC T2 processor with 5.7M gates show that all required test data for 100% testable stuck-at fault coverage can be stored in just 59.4% of the scan cells of the processor. Experimental results for transition faults are also presented, which show that more identical cores are needed in order to store all test data for transition faults. We also discuss how to extend this paper to address fault diagnosis and engineering change order problems.

A Novel Mass-Producible Capacitive Sensor with Fully Symmetric 3D Structure and Microfluidics for Cells Detection.

Affinity biosensors of interdigitated electrodes have been widely used in cell detection. This research presents a mass-producible and disposable three-dimensional (3D) structure capacitive sensor based on the integrated circuit package lead frames for cell concentration detection. The fully symmetric 3D interdigital electrode structure makes the sensor more homogeneous and sensitive. (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) and glutaraldehyde are immobilized onto gold-plated electrodes. By overlaying the microfluidic channels on top, the volume of the solution is kept constant to obtain repeatable measured capacitance values. Moreover, using the upgraded reading and writing functions and circular measurement of the E4980A Data Transfer Program, an automatic multigroup test system is developed. It is shown that the cell concentration and capacitance are inversely correlated, and the cell concentration range of 103–106 CFU∙mL−1 is achieved. In addition, the rate of capacitance change matches that of state-of-the-art biosensors reported. A program is developed to find the optimal voltage and frequency for linear fitting between the capacitance change and cell concentration. Future work will employ machine learning-based data analysis to drug resistance sensitivity test of cell lines and cell survival status.

Auto Spruce Trial System (ASTS)

Auto Spruce Trial System (ASTS) is designed to provide a platform in which children’s intelligence and cognitive behavior are tested through Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). This test is used for a children assessment and find out their abilities learning and disabilities, as well as a clinical device. ASTS system is an automated testing system which conducts the children test and generates their intelligence result automatically. We automate the system as mentioned above in Pakistan which is taken manually and consumes a lot of time. It does not really matter how much intelligence one has, what makes a difference is the manner by which well one uses his/her intelligence. This test is applicable for those children’s whose parents are worried about their mental health’s issues and their learning potential. An intelligence test can encourage guardians and instructors make judgments around an individual child’s educational course, standard, or in need of special education.

Improvement of test data compression using Huffman and Golomb coding techniques

Test vector compression is an emerging trend in the field of VLSI testing. According to these trends, increasing test data volume is one of the biggest challenges in the testing industry. The overall throughput of automatic test equipment (ATE) is sensitive to the download time of test data. An effective approach to the reduction of the download time is to compress test data before the download. But this tester has limited speed, memory and I/O channels. The test data bandwidth between the tester and the chip is small which is the bottleneck in determining how fast the testing process. To overcome these limitations of the Automatic Test Equipment (ATE), a new hybrid test vector compression technique is proposed. the large volume of test data input is compressed in a hybrid fashion before being downloaded into the processor and the test compression ratio is increased and is experimentally verified with the benchmark circuits.

Automatic Text System Based on PLC for Walk-Through Metal Detector

In recent years, the safety situation around the world is very serious. Each country has higher quality requirements for walk-through metal detector, and the newly issued standards are stricter. It has required precise and detailed testing work. Therefore, an automatic test system was designed to meet the requirements. The system was an AC servo system based on PC+PLC, with the control core of PLC and three-dof motion platform composed of servo motor and linear module to perform slide components. The paper focused on the overall architecture, structure design, working process, hardware composition, PLC programming and software functions of the system. The system has no interference to the testing work of metal detector with good testing ability and high positioning accuracy. The system improves the accuracy of the testing, and provides a friendly man-machine interface, which greatly reduces the working intensity of testers.

基于LabVIEW的Xe核自旋横向弛豫时间自动测试系统

基于LabVIEW的Xe核自旋横向弛豫时间自动测试系统

Atividade Metanogênica Específica: Metodologias simplificada e automatizada para lodos de reatores anaeróbios

O teste da atividade metanogênica específica (AME) permite conhecimento sobre o potencial de lodos anaeróbios em digestão de material orgânico, no entanto, ainda não possui protocolo prático para o seu desenvolvimento mais disseminado nas Estações de Tratamento. O presente trabalho avaliou dois métodos de AME, um simplificado e outro automatizado. Em ambos métodos houve inoculação de lodo de reator anaeróbio, diluição com solução nutritiva e adição de substrato (acetato de sódio), em concentrações adequadas. Para o método simplificado foram utilizados frascos de antibiótico com medição manual da produção de biogás, por meio de seringa esmerilhada, e análise de metano via cromatografia. No método automatizado foi utilizado o equipamento AMPTS (Automatic Methane Potential Test System), o qual fornecia os resultados por meio de interface com software específico. Os resultados obtidos com o método simplificado foram mais coerentes ao esperado (valores em torno da faixa de 0,2 a 0,3 gDQOCH4/gSV.d), confiáveis e de custo inferior, considerando todos os recursos materiais envolvidos, quando comparados com os obtidos com método automatizado (valores em torno de 0,1 gDQOCH4/gSV.d). Além disso, verificou-se que novas praticidades podem ser implementadas.

Automatic Test and Sorting System for the Slide Valve Body of Oil Control Valve Based on Cartesian Coordinate Robot

Current industrial robotics technology is often not well integrated with the enterprise’s on-site environment and actual working conditions and small and medium-sized enterprises are unable to achieve product automation due to production cost constraints. In order to meet the medium and small scale production of the slide valve body of OCV (Oil Control Valve) of a certain enterprise and its special process requirements, the automatic test system and sorting system based on the production environment of the enterprise are studied and designed. Firstly, according to the production conditions and process requirements of the enterprise, the overall design scheme of the automatic production line is put forward based on the existing automatic assembly system. Secondly, the test description is further improved by analysing and interpreting the test requirements of the products in detail and the automatic test system and test process are designed. Finally, according to the sorting process requirements, a Cartesian coordinate robot sorting system with two-terminal manipulators parallel operation is designed and its sorting motion scheme is optimized. The automatic test system and sorting system are seamlessly connected with the automatic assembly system, which can efficiently complete the automatic test and sorting of products and meet the production cycle time.

Design and Application of a Flexible Test System for Relay Communication Terminals

In order to test the functions and performance of the satellite relay communication terminal comprehensively before the satellite access network test and satellite relay communication test, a flexible automatic test system based on general hardware platform and special software was designed with electronic, communication, computer and network technologies. The testing system can provide equipment testing capability such as bit error rate, modulation signal quality and sensitivity analysis. The practical application results show that the flexible test system of relay communication terminal has the characteristics of complete function, simple operation, accurate result, stable and reliable, which is suitable for application in practical engineering.

On-the-fly Computation Method in Field-Programmable Gate Array for Analog-to-Digital Converter Linearity Testing

This paper presents a new approach to linearity testing of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) through on-the-fly computation in field-programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware. The proposed method computes the linearity while it is processing without compromising the accuracy of the measurement, so very little overhead time is required to compute the final linearity. The results will be displayed immediately after a single ramp is supplied to the device under test. This is a cost-effective chip testing solution for semiconductor companies, achieved by reducing computing time and utilization of low-cost and low-specification automatic test equipment (ATE). The experimental results showed that the on-the-fly computation method significantly reduced the computation time (up to 44.4%) compared to the conventional process. Thus, for every 100M 12-bit ADC tested with 32 hits per code, the company can save up to 139,972 Php on electricity consumption.

Investigation of the Effect of State-of-Charge and C-Rates on the Heat Loss and Efficiency of a Lithium-Ion Battery

To comprehend the thermal behaviour, performance and the dependency of the affecting parameters such as state-of-charge and C-rates on the heat loss, efficiency, heat flux and maximum temperature of a commercial pouch type lithium-ion battery under various working conditions, different loading were applied to the battery. The capacity of the battery is 13Ah, which has a lithium titanate oxide based anode from Altairnano. Surface temperatures and heat flux of the Lithium-ion battery cell were measured by means of isothermal battery calorimeter. Different charge and discharge current pulses with different C-rates at ten state of charge (SOC) levels from 10% to 90% SOC were applied to the battery by using Maccor automated test system. It was concluded that heat losses demonstrated approximately decreasing pattern from 10 % SOC to 90% SOC.

Circulating tumor cells with karyotyping as a novel biomarker for diagnosis and treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

BackgroundCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) have been considered great clinical significance in various cancers. However, it remains unknown that how is the role of CTCs in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We investigated the value of CTCs enumeration and karyotyping in NPC.MethodsIn the present study, we applied integrated subtraction enrichment and immunostaining-fluorescence in situ hybridization (SE-iFISH) automatic testing system to detect and characterize CTCs of NPC patients. Enumeration and aneuploidy of chromosome 8 in CTCs were examined in various stages of patients with NPC. The changes of CTCs number and karyotyping post to chemotherapy were investigated in NPC.ResultsCTCs were detected by SE-iFISH in 46 out of 50 pre-treatment NPC patients, and performed a positive rate of 92.0%. No significant association was found between disease staging and CTCs detection rate. CTCs number constantly increased with TNM stage rising (from stage II to stage IV) no matter in newly diagnosed patients without distant metastasis (M0) and relapsed or distant metastatic patients. The number of CTCs decreased after treatment in patients with partial response (PR), while increased in patients with progressive disease or stable disease (PD/SD). More interestingly, CTCs karyotyping indicated that aneuploidy of chromosome 8 in CTCs was dramatically related to chemotherapeutic efficacy in NPC. Positive correlation was found between CTCs count and plasma EBV DNA level of NPC patients.ConclusionsCTCs could be detected in various stages of NPC patients using SE-iFISH. CTCs number could indicate the severity degree of disease in NPC. Dynamically monitoring the variations in CTCs number may predict chemotherapy efficacy during treatment. CTCs karyotyping is related to the sensibility of chemotherapy and drug resistance, and karyotyping of CTCs might predict therapeutic efficacy and evaluate chemo-resistance in NPC. CTCs could be used as a monitoring indicator in the fields of treatment, diagnosis and follow-up of NPC.

A New Test Procedure to Measure Power Electronic Devices’ Frequency Coupling Admittance

One method to model power electronic devices for harmonic emission studies is using frequency-domain models based on the frequency coupling matrices. This paper presents a new test procedure for the experimental evaluation of the frequency coupling matrix elements of power electronic devices. An automated test system is designed, realized, and characterized from a metrological perspective. Experimental tests show the tremendous increase in speed of the new test procedure in comparison to the classical test procedures present in the literature, with the same levels of accuracy of obtained results.

MMIC on-Wafer Test Method Based on Hybrid Balanced and Unbalanced RF Pad Structures

Nowadays, more and more MMICs (Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit), such as limiters and switches, are designed to have balanced and unbalanced test pad structures to solve the challenging size restrictions and integration requirements for MMICs. Hybrid balanced and unbalanced RF (Radio Frequency) probes are adopted for an on-wafer test of the heteromorphy structures. The thru standard based on single balanced or unbalanced structures cannot meet the impedance matching requirements of the hybrid RF probes at the same time, which leads to a dramatic decreasing of the calibration accuracy and cannot satisfy the requirement of MMIC test. Therefore, in this paper, the calibration error estimating of hybrid RF probes based on traditional SOLR (Short Open Load Reciprocal) calibration method is performed, and an on-wafer test approach of MMIC based on hybrid balanced and unbalanced RF probes is proposed which combines the OSL (Open Short Load) second-order de-embedding technique with vector error correction and the matrix transformation technique. The calibration reference plane can be accurately shifted to the probe tip with this method, which greatly improves the test accuracy, and an automatic test system is built for this method based on the object-oriented C# language.

Batch biodegradability study of fresh and aged food waste: performance and kinetic

Peninsular Malaysia generates 17000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day in 2002 and it is estimated to increase to 31,000 tonnes per day on 2020, unfortunately food waste (FW) is the largest component of MSW. The high amount of FW generated related to landfill’s main issues such as foul odour, toxic leachate, emission of greenhouse gases and vermin infestation. FW is highly potential in producing methane because it is rich in volatile solid. Therefore, the research trend on anaerobic digestion of FW has shifted for methane production because methane can be transformed to electrical energy production. The objective of this research is to evaluate the methane potential and kinetics of methane production from the anaerobic digestion of fresh and aged food waste taken from fast food restaurant. The methane production under mesophilic condition was monitored by using Automatic Methane Potential Test System II (AMPTS II). Triplicate sample reactors were prepared for each substrate (fresh and aged FW) at IS ratio of 2.0 on VS basis. Besides that, duplicate blank reactors were prepared concurrently, contained only inoculum. The fresh FW resulted in higher ultimate methane yield (Mo) and methane production rate (Rm). Comparing to results from fresh FW, the Mo and Rm observed from digestion of aged FW were decreased by 17% and 27% respectively. Kinetic analysis using Modified Gompertz modelling showed that Mo for fresh and aged FW were increased, as well as for lag phase (λ). Meanwhile the decreased Rm was observed for fresh and aged FW.

Novel Ultrasound System With Intelligent Compensation for High Precision Measurement of Thin Wall Tube

Ultrasound is widely used for measuring wall-thickness and diameter of tubes. All tubes are required to conduct the full profile of inspection to guarantee the quality by using an automatic nondestructive testing system. However, most of the current ultrasonic testing works were done under the stationary condition for both specimen and probes with limited detection area. There exist challenges for providing a precisely measurement by approaching an automatic ultrasonic testing with high-speed inspection while it suffers the influence from temperature change of the water, mechanical vibration, and tube deformation. In this paper, the spectral analysis of ultrasonic resonance was applied to measure the wall-thickness and diameter of the tubes. Besides, a novel intelligent compensation ultrasonic system with embedded strategy of self-organizing feature mapping artificial neural network is proposed to eliminate the interference under the condition of high-speed inspection. The experimental and comparison studies have been carried out. The corresponding results illustrate that the measurement precision of diameter and wall thickness can be effectively improved by using the proposed method.