AUTOTESTCON lives up to billing as premiere test conference
When Gordon Ross attended AUTOTESTCON last week in Anaheim, his “must-do” list was long. Right at the top was to check out JTAG (Joint Test Action Group)/ Boundary Scan hardware and software.
“I have already got the test engineering staff involved in a series of JTAG seminars to improve our knowledge and to offer our customers alternative testing methods,” said Ross who spent significant time checking out the hardware and software on display at AUTOTESTCON, the premiere electronics testing conference.
“The vendor fair had a great selection of test equipment vendors both at the instrument level and full turnkey development partners,” said Ross, director of Qualitel’s test department. “I was particularly interested in JTAG/Boundary scan hardware and software. JTAG allows circuit cards with poor physical access to be tested through a test access port. A large portion of digital devices support the JTAG standard IEEE 1149.1.
“Qualitel is benchmarking systems with a view to adding this testing as an addition to our multiple test technologies.”
The capability of the new JTAG hardware and software can help get to the root cause of structural issues, and gain coverage where no access exists. It also has the capability to program digital devices such as FPGAs allowing flexibility to support development code changes without affecting the manufacturing strategy.
“Adding this capability allows Qualitel to offer our customers multiple choices for their testing process,” Ross said, “aiming for the maximum coverage with the lowest cost.”
Ross described the conference as “excellent. The content, presentations and vendor choices were everything I had hoped for. My goals were to attend a lot of the tutorials / training sessions, network with the Automatic Testing community, meet with vendors and spread the word about Qualitel.
“I attended nine technical sessions or tutorials where industry experts passed on their knowledge on a number of topics, from Testing A-Z to Design for Testability and many more.
“There was excellent representation from major OEMs, 60 + Vendors, Government agencies and IEEE officers and dignitaries. There were over 500 attendees from all over the world.”
