Automatic Test Equipment Research Articles

Kinetics Modeling of Anaerobic Fermentative Production of Methane from Kitchen Waste Solid Residual

A series of batch mesophilic anaerobic digesntion were conducted using an automatic methane potential test system (AMPTS) and the kinetics of methane production was also discussed using modified Gompertz equation, Logistic function, First-order kinetics model and Transference function, respectively. The results showed that the kitchen waste solid residual was of high biomethane potential, and the maximum specific methane yield was obtained 585 NmL/g TS at inoculums substrate ratio (ISR) 2:1. All of the four models could appropriately fit the accumulative methane production in steady state (R2>0.95), where the 1st-ordre model and Transference function were relatively much better (R2>0.99) than the other two models. The maximum methane production and maximum methane production rate obtained from the Transference function were 569.32 NmL/g TS and 150.22 NmL/g TS day; the maximum kinetics constant obtained from the 1st-order model was 0.272/day; the lag time (λ) was basically negligible in all the cases. These parameters were quite close to the experimental results.

Test Time Reduction in EDT Bandwidth Management for SoC Designs

This paper presents novel methods of reducing test time and enhancing test compression for system-on-chip (SoC) designs armed with embedded deterministic test (EDT)-based compression logic. The ability of the proposed scheme to improve the encoding efficiency and test compression, while reducing test application time, is accomplished by appropriate selecting and laying out automatic test equipment channel injectors of every single core EDT-based decompressor as well as appropriate bandwidth management of the entire test procedure combined with new control data optimization techniques. The efficacy of the proposed scheme is validated through experiments on several industrial SoC designs and is reported herein.

Research on the Effect of Mechanical Processing on Lithium Tantalate Crystal Pyroelectric Coefficient

Lithium tantalate (LT) is a kind of excellent pyroelectric materials that can be made into high performance pyroelectric detector. As the detector voltage response and detection rate inversely proportional to the thickness of the infrared sensing element, So the thinning of lithium tantalate crystals becomes a key of success. This design uses CMP method to produce 50 μm thickness of LT wafer, and via charge integration method with computer automatic test system to test the pyroelectric coefficient of crystals with different thickness and surface roughness. The pyroelectric coefficient of crystal achieved 203 μC·m-2k-1 proves the favorable pyroelectric properties.

Study on the Automatic Test Device of Airflow Performance in Refrigerator Transportation Vehicle

In order to test the environment inside the refrigerator transportation vehicle, a automatic test system of airflow performance is built based on monitor and control system of CAN bus. The parameters of flow field such as humiture, wind speed, wind direction and pressure can be collected movably, processed and monitored in realtime with the proposed system, which is helpful for the design and manufacture of refrigerator transportation vehicle.

Research and Realization on IVI Driver

As an important part of LXI instruments, IVI driver provides instruments a unified programming interface. It brings convenience to the development and maintenance of automatic test system, and meets the requirements of LXI bus for instrument interchangeability. IVI driver architecture and implementations based on IVICOM are analyzed. An IVI-COM driver of a LXI instrument is designed and implemented, and a test program for this IVI-COM is built. Test result shows the right functions and interchangeability of the designed IVI COM driver.

LXI Precision Time Protocol Applied Research

In order to meet the real-time demands of some equipment networked test, the time synchronization techniques of ATS based traditional instrument buses are compared with the techniques of LXI ATS. Accordingly,the necessity of LXI ATS time synchronization technique study is put forward. The sorts of time synchronization techniques based on Local Area Network are analyzed. In addition, some methods which could improve the level of LXI data real-time communications are presented. Afterwards, technique realizations of PTP are studied in detail. Local Area Network techniques and IEEE 1588 Precise Time Protocol are adopted in the LXI Automatic Test System which designed in the paper, and the level of time synchronization precision in the system is improved.

Predictive Techniques for Projecting Test Data Volume Compression

Test data compression is widely employed in scan design to tackle high test data volume (TDV) and test time problems. Given the number of scan-in pins available in automated test equipment, architectural decisions regarding the number of internal scan chains directly impact the compression level attained. While targeting an aggressive compression level by increasing the number of internal scan chains would reduce the TDV per encodable pattern, the cost of serially applying more patterns to restore the coverage loss offsets the compression benefits. Following up from our earlier work, we propose here a wide spectrum of predictive techniques for projecting the test cost of a given scan configuration for combinational xor-based decompression. The appropriate technique is selected by designers based on which stage the design is in, the design abstraction and the amount of information available, the permissible computational complexity of the techniques, and the accuracy of the projected optimal compression ratio.

Built‐in‐self‐test technique for diagnosis of delay faults in cluster‐based field programmable gate arrays

The increased circuit complexity of field programmable gate array (FPGA) poses a major challenge in the testing of FPGAs. One of the test challenges is to detect the delay faults in high-speed circuits. Built-in-self-test (BIST) Technique is an ease solution compared with expensive automatic test equipment. In this work, a BIST structure is proposed to detect the delay faults in the various resources of the FPGA such as multiplier, digital signal processing (DSP) block, look-up tables etc. and interconnects of FPGA. The authors have also proposed a full-diagnosable BISTer structure that improves the testing efficiency of the logic BIST. The proposed BISTer structure can diagnose the faulty configurable logic block (CLB), when all the CLBs in the 2 × 3 BIST are faulty. The proposed scheme has been simulated in Xilinx Vertex FPGA, using ISE tool, Jbits3.0 API and XHWI (Xilinx HardWare Interface) and MATLAB7.0. The result shows significant improvement compared with earlier BIST methods.

High-Quality Statistical Test Compression With Narrow ATE Interface

In this paper, we present a novel compression method and a low-cost decompression architecture that combine the advantages of both symbol-based and linear-based techniques and offer a very attractive unified solution that removes the barriers of existing test data compression techniques. Besides the traditional goals of high compression and short test application time, the proposed method also offers low shift switching activity and high unmodeled defect coverage at the same time. In addition, it favors multi-site testing as requires a very low pin-count interface to the automatic test equipment. Finally, contrary to existing techniques, it provides an integrated solution for testing multi-core system on chips (SoCs) as it is suitable for cores of both known and unknown structures that usually coexist in SoCs.

Directional Pattern Measuring System Research of a TT&C Antenna

Directional pattern is a clear visual representation form of antenna radiation characteristics. Taking a certain kind of shipborne radar as example, the basic principle of the directional pattern measurement was analyzed, the basic methods and execution scheme were introduced in detail. A directional pattern automatic testing system which was based on Lavbiew was researched on the basis of existed testing techniques, and finally the directional pattern automatic measurement was realized through the use of virtual instrument GPIB and serial interface techniques.

Research on Key Technologies of Detecting 1553B Avionics Data Bus Network

Abstract 1553B avionics data bus network may fail due to vibration, temperature, humidity or human error. Therefore, the research on detection technology of 1553B avionics data bus network is an important subject. The key technologies are studied by analyzing the possible faults of the network, including four-wire DC resistance measurement method for conductors-to-shield short test and stub continuity test, equivalent impedance measurement of coupling transformer for main bus continuity test, polarity reversal test base on duty ratio measurement, attenuation measurement base on coupler model, and data path integrity test base on bit error rate calculation. Finally, the implementation methods of key technologies are researched, a portable integrated automatic test system of 1553B data bus network is constructed based on PC104 computer, and the hardware configuration and test process are especially designed.

Research on Voltage and Current Monitoring System for Circuit Breaker

This article develops the automatic test system of voltage and current dynamic waveform for circuit breaker. The system has the automatic monitoring, the storage and the display function of contact voltage and current waveform of circuit breaker in switching process. And then, it also designs the hardware and software of voltage and current dynamic monitoring system for miniature circuit breaker: the hardware circuit of this test system mainly consists of the detection circuit and the data acquisition circuit of current and voltage. And the software system, which mainly consists of control program, data acquisition program and data processing program, is programmed under the condition of LabVIEW. At last, it carries on the real-time monitor to the voltage and current waveform at the both ends of the circuit breaker, especially for the waveform during the switching process, which contributes to study the arc energy and contact wear of circuit breaker.

The Study on Electric Parameters Automatic Test System

Based on a digital signal processor hardware and the wavelet transform theory the next generation of electri'cal parameters automatic test system is designed. The current and voltage signal measurement relative error is not more than 0.2%, the power factor and harmonic content measurement error is not more than 1.1%, and frequency signal measurement error is less than 0.1% by this system.

High Pressure Pneumatic Control Valve Performance Test System

As a pressure regulating component, pneumatic control valve has been widely used in control system. The stability of its performance not only concerns the control precision, but also has direct influence on the systems normal operation. Thus, a test on the valves characteristics before putting into use is rather important. According to analysis of testing requirements, this paper determined the overall program of this pneumatic measurement system, designed the gas-circuit, provided specialized software for measurement, and developed an automatic test system. The experimental data shows the system is with high precision and can satisfy the needs of valve test well.

The Research and Development of Automotive Switches Test System Based on LabVIEW

This article describes the research and development of automatic switch test and control system. It introduces the hardware structure of the test system, designs and builds the signal conditioning circuit. Applying of virtual instrument design software to achieve the purpose of control the system, and acquisition and processing of test data. And take some effective measures to curb the noise interference signals. The experimental results show that the system can fulfill accurately online monitoring for the parameters in the test process. The test results can be used as a standard to determine whether the switch qualified.

Boundary scan as a system-level diagnostic tool

Before one can repair a broken system ¿ computer, industrial machinery, automobile electronics or avionics - two related, but not identical, activities are required. First, one has to determine that the system is in fact faulty. Often the determination is made by the user though sometimes incorrectly. For confirmation and for better assurance, a test is run. The test is usually built-in (BIT) or external test using manual or automatic test equipment (ATE). Once it is confirmed that the system is faulty, the related activity of identifying that fault, or diagnosis, is also needed. While diagnoses utilize results of tests, they are not the same thing as tests. Knowing that a computer will not boot up is far from being able to identify the cause and to begin repairs.

Research on Access Control Method of Automatic Test System Based on Access View

This paper studies on access control method for automatic test system (ATS) based on access view. The access view of access object is proposed according to the division of test stage, subset and manipulation to units under test (UUTs). Matrix is used to describe the access view and version control is applied for access view. This method provides access control in finer grit.

The Importance of Professional Integrity [From The Editor's Bench

By tradition, the I&M Magazine's August issue is devoted to expanded versions of selected papers from the previous year's AUTOTESTCON meeting. This month's cover reminds us that test work - and automated test systems in particular - allow us to harden and qualify equipment for severe real-world conditions. It is certainly true that military applications are not the exclusive domain of automated test applications - for example, the June 2013 edition of this magazine contained excellent articles about commercial test and development programs for implantable medical device batteries and aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Military systems, however, do demand some of the most comprehensive test programs available. domain of automated test applications - for example, the June 2013 edition of this magazine contained excellent articles about commercial test and development programs for implantable medical device batteries and aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Military systems, however, do demand some of the most comprehensive test programs available.

IEC61850–Based Systems—Functional Testing and Interoperability Issues

This paper presents a proposal for functional testing of protection and automation systems based on the IEC61850 standard. The proposed methodology is based on the development of tests scenarios which properly represent the actual systems and their operative conditions. It includes the selection of hardware and software that are used to simulate the operational events and acquire data for further analysis. This methodology was developed to evaluate the protection and automation systems of large-sized substations mainly regarding the interoperability between intelligent electronic devices of different manufacturers. This paper explains in detail the proposed methodology and an actual case study.

Study on Mechanical Automation with Airborne Guiding Ammunition Automatic Testing Equipment Development

This paper introduces foreign airborne guiding ammunition automatic testing equipment development history and current situation, analyzed our Army airborne guiding ammunition automatic testing equipment development and existing problems, putting forward my Army Airborne guiding ammunition testing equipment development proposal.