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Teradyne (Boston, MA) announced that its Flying Prober FP1004, a fixtureless manufacturing process test system, has been enhanced with new features that improve test throughput and device fault coverage for printed circuit board test. The Flying Prober has been updated to include the Windows NT operating system. New fault diagnostic tools consist of MultiScan vectorless test tools and Vision test. A built-in conveyor is fully programmable and SMEMA-compatible for integrated in-line test capabilities. The new Flying Prober features respond to manufacturer's need for faster testing to accommodate shrinking product life cycles in a high-volume production environment.

The Flying Prober eliminates the need for bed-of-nails fixtures and helps reduce program development and debug time while still providing high fault coverage for prototype testing and sample in-line testing. By leveraging hardware capabilities that already exist on the FP1004, manufacturers are able to integrate the Flying Prober with factory automated lines. The Flying Prober can be situated anywhere in the manufacturer's line. This makes prototype testing and sample in-line testing flexible and efficient.

The Flying Prober FP1004 now operates in the Windows NT environment for runtime production testing and test development. The menu-driven, graphical presentation of the operating system makes it intuitive for programmers reducing training and accelerating the debug process. Other Windows NT features on the Flying Prober include multitasking and support of Windows DLL (Dynamically Linked Libraries) and COM (Component Object Model) standards, which enable communications with other Windows programs, locally or over a network.

Two MultiScan vectorless test techniques, DeltaScan and FrameScan, are now available on the Flying Prober. DeltaScan measures changes in the DC current flowing through the protection diodes at each pin. This technique enables the Flying Prober to detect opens on integrated circuits, including BGAs and devices with heat sinks. FrameScan is a power-off technique used for testing multiple in-circuit devices, connectors and sockets. The FrameScan technique is especially convenient for surface mount boards. FrameScan can also be used on non-digital components.

Pricing for the Flying Prober FP1004 starts at around $195,000 in North America.

Teradyne Inc., Assembly Test Group, The Assembly Test Division, 321 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02118; Phone: 617- 482-2700; Fax: 617-451-1984