Electricity: measuring and testing – Measuring – testing – or sensing electricity – per se – With rotor
Patent
1985-08-12
1987-11-17
Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
Electricity: measuring and testing
Measuring, testing, or sensing electricity, per se
With rotor
324 73PC, 324158P, G01R 106
Patent
active
047076577
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a connector assembly for a circuit board testing machine.
Hitherto a visual inspection or examination of circuit boards, especially printed circuit boards, has been a sufficient "testing" routine as to the correctness of single-sided or double-sided printed circuit boards. However, the appearance of more complex, more compact, more elaborated, and consequently more expensive circuit boards, such as thin-film or thick-film circuit boards, i.e. circuit boards including circuit tracks provided in thin-film or thick-film technique, respectively, multi-layer printed circuit boards, i.e. printed circuit boards including several layers of boards made of an insulating material having circuit tracks of an electrically conductive material arranged on one side surface of each of the boards and further through-platings connecting the circuit tracks of the individual boards to one another, and circuit boards combining the printed circuit board technique, the multi-layer printed circuit board and layer techniques, e.g. the so-called mixed boards or boards provided in PTF technique (PTF: Polymer Thick-Film), requires a more accurate and reliable testing routine, as a visual inspection or examination may not reveal an incorrectness of the circuit board, especially an incorrectness of a multi-layer circuit board having incorrect circuit connections embedded within the circuit board assembly. An incorrectness of a thin-film or thick-film circuit board may also be hard to detect by visual inspection, even when a microscope is employed.
For providing a more reliable and economical testing routine than the visual inspection or examination of a circuit board, i.e. a board made of an insulating material having circuit tracks of an electrically conductive material arranged on at least one side surface thereof, such as a single sided, double-sided or multi-layer printed circuit board, a ceramic thick-film substrate or the like, circuit board testing machines have been developed. These known testing machines are adapted to supply DC or AC current to a selected point or area of the circuit tracks of the circuit board and to determine the current transferred to other selected points or areas of the circuit tracks of the circuit board. These testing machines have been equipped or adapted to a particular circuit board layout, as individual connector pins have been arranged in a configuration corresponding to the selected points or areas of the circuit board layout in question and internally connected to current generating means and current measuring means through switching means. The testing machines have further been programmed to the circuit board layout in question, and on the basis of the information programmed into the testing machine, the machines are able to determine whether a circuit board includes the required circuit board connections and no further connections, and, consequently, whether the tested circuit board is a correct circuit board, or whether the circuit board includes erroneous connections or fails to include certain connections, and, consequently, whether the test circuit board is an incorrect circuit board. However, as the circuit board testing machine has to be equipped or adapted to the circuit board layout in question, the automatic circuit board testing routine is only profitable in connection with large-scale production of circuit boards.
Furthermore, due to the individual connector pins, the prior art testing machines are not able to test highly delicate and compact circuit boards such as thin-film or thick-film substrates, mixed boards or boards provided in PTF technique, and furthermore, they are not able to test circuit boards having components mounted thereon. The connector pin concept of the prior are testing machines also makes these machines highly liable to mechanical failure.
Therefore, there is a need for a connector assembly for a circuit board testing machine, rendering the circuit board testing machine more easily adaptable to different circuit board layouts, an
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Eisenzopf Reinhard J.
Nguyen Vinh P.
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