Apparatus for testing electrical circuit units such as printed circuit cards

37 Pages·2013·3.21 MB·English

United States Patent [191 [11] 4,097,797
Finet [45] Jun. 27, 1978
[54] APPARATUS FOR TESTING ELECTRICAL Assistant Examiner-Rolf Hille
CIRCUIT UNITS SUCH AS PRINTED Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Benjamin J. Barish; Dale V.
CIRCUIT CARDS Gaudier; Kevin R. Peterson
[75] Inventor: Michel Finet, Soumagne, Belgium [57] ABSTRACT
[73] Assignee: Burroughs Corporation, Detroit, A system is described for testing electrical circuit units,
particularly printed circuit cards having a plurality of
Mich.
plug-in connector terminals.
[21] Appl. No.: 693,595
The testing system is ?rst operated in the Generation
[22] Filed: Jun. 7, 1976 Mode wherein it generates a reference test pattern pro
duced from a series of test stimuli applied sequentially
Related US. Application Data to a reference card, and stores the pattern in a bulk
memory, the pattern being in the form of a series of
[63] Continuation of Ser. No. 515,811, Oct. 17, 1974,
words identi?ed by the part number of the respective
abandoned.
card and containing the test stimuli and the responses
[51] Int. Cl.2 ..................... .. G01R 15/12; G06F 11/00 thereto from the reference card. To test a production
[52] US. Cl. ................................. .. 324/73 R; 235/302 card, the system is operated in the Test Mode, wherein
[58] Field of Search ............. .. 324/73 R; 235/153 AC the stored test pattern generated from the correspond
ing reference card is extracted from the bulk memory
[56] References Cited
and the reference responses are compared in a G0,
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS NO-GO testing operation with the actual responses
produced when applying the same test stimuli to the
3,302,109 l/1967 Jones .... .. 324/73 R
production card.
3,581,074 5/1971 Waltz . 324/73 R X
3,614,608 10/1971 Giedd 324/73 R The system includes a pair of ?ip-?ops for each pin of
3,651,315 3/1972 Collins .... .. . 324/73 R X the tested card, one ?ip-?op being connected to a cir
3,673,397 6/1972 Schaefer ...................... .. 324/73 R X
cuit which re?ects the actual response of the pin to the
OTHER PUBLICATIONS test stimulus during the Test Mode, and the other ?ip
?op being connected to a circuit which re?ects the
N. J. Gale, “A Computer Controlled Circuit Tester”
reference reponse to the test stimulus as determined
Electronic Instrumentation Conference, Hobart, Aus
during the Generation Mode. The ?ip-?op pairs are
tralia, May 1972, pp. 80-82.
disposed in a plurality of matrix cards each accommo
Krosner; S. P. et al., “Logic Card Tester” IBM Techni
dating all the ?ip-?ops of a group of pins (e.g., eight
cal Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 14, N0. 4, Sep. 1971, pp.
matrix cards each containing the ?ip-?op pairs for 25
142-143. pins, when testing a 200-pin card), providing a ?exible
Cargile; W. P., “A Computer-—Contro1led System for
modular arrangement easily enlargeable or alterable for
Testing Digital Logic Modules” Hewlett-—Packard
testing other cards.
Journal, Mar. 1969, pp. 14-20.
Primary Examiner-—-John K. Corbin 12 11 Claims, 21 Drawing Figures
MAGNETIC
TAPE
GENERAL
4~ PURPOSE
COMPUTER
I/O WORD
6. CONTROL
UNIT
14
~ 200-PIN
2.- ANALYSER
U.S. Patent June 27, 1978 'Sheet1of14 4,097,797
MAGNETIC CARD
TAPE REA DER
GENERAL
4N PURPOSE
COMPUTER
I/O W 0 RD
CONTROL
6N UNIT
P
~14
2 OO-PIN
2N ANA LYSER
U. S. Patent June 27, 1978 Sheet2 of14 4,097,797
FROM AND TO FROM AND TO O
16 1/0 wORO CONTROL OTHER TEsTERs >8
INTERFACE
14*’ CARD 20b
,J TO CONTROL CARD
20a ANALYSER 2
TO CONTROL CARD
ANALYSER 3
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20c
TESTER #1
CONTROLCARD
MODESoL OPERATIONS '24
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CONTROL
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22
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31 4s
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June 27, 1978 Sheet 6 of 14
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