SEICA holds seminar on electronic testing of PCBs

ITALY: SEICA Italy held a technical seminar dedicated to the electronic testing of PCBs. This meeting was the official opportunity to present to the attending companies the new product line called RAPID; flying probers targeted to PCB testing.

The product represents the combined knowledge and expertise of the SEICA BBT line, and is based on the “Ultra Fast” technology. In addition to speed, attention to aesthetics and improved ergonomics were also very important. Compactness and rationality, combined with the software ease of use, are the result of Seica’s research to develop a system that is simple to use and maintain.

The Ultra Fast technology is based on an innovative stimuli and measurement system which is directly installed on the flying probes, and hence very close to the circuit under test. This technology is present on all Rapid Line testers. Therefore, every single test has “smart” hardware available, based on DSP technology, able to communicate in real-time with the central unit allowing for capacitive, resistive and inductive measurements which are highly accurate and precise.

The changes in the manufacturing processes and in the economy of many companies, along with the short time-to-market, increasingly justify the use of automation.  The use of automation will allow customers to achieve the efficiency levels and throughput imposed by the time and costs restraints of the market.

To be economically cost-effective in most of the manufacturing PCB operations of today (featured by high-quality of different units and by production cycles of small-to-medium series) any automated solution should have a high level of flexibility and a very short setup time. To reach this requirement, an automated solution should include mechanical flexibility, and simplified and intuitive software in order to empower the user with the complete solution in mixed, and low-volume production.

The Rapid range also has in-line test solutions (Rapid 240, equipped with four flying probes, Rapid 280, equipped with eight probes), with automatic loading/unloading capability.

Since the time required for testing is normally longer than most other manufacturing processes, the most common configuration for testing is the “stand-alone” configuration, with storage units/external loaders connected to the internal loader of the test system.