Electricity: measuring and testing – Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components – Of individual circuit component or element
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-13
2001-07-10
Brown, Glenn W. (Department: 2858)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components
Of individual circuit component or element
C324S538000, C324S754090, C324S755090, C324S758010, C324S537000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06259265
ABSTRACT:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. § 119 from an application entitled UNIFIED TEST SYSTEM AND TEST METHOD USING THE SAME earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Oct. 13, 1998 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 42751/1998, a copy of which is annexed hereto.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a hard disk drive manufacturing process, and more particularly, to a unified test system for testing the performance of a printed circuit board assembly and a test method using the same.
2. Related Art
Among processes for manufacturing a hard disk drive used as an auxiliary storage device of a computer, an in-circuit testing (ICT) process and a function circuit testing (FCT) process are used to test the performance of a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).
In the in-circuit testing process, the soldering quality of a printed circuit board assembly produced through a surface mounting device (SMD) process and the quality of each circuit element are tested in a unit of parts to detect defects, for example, whether any parts are shorted or wrongly inserted. In the function circuit testing process, the printed circuit board assembly is connected, after the in-circuit testing process, to a head disk assembly (HDA) to test functions between the printed circuit board assembly and the head disk assembly and a read/write capability.
Generally, hard disk drive manufacturers separately implement the above two processes, so it takes a long time to test the performance of the printed circuit board assembly. Further, since the printed circuit board assembly and the head disk assembly should manually be connected with each other to implement the in-circuit testing and function circuit testing processes, there are required many workers, and productivity may be lowered due to manual work. Moreover, since the head disk assembly connected to test the performance of the printed circuit board assembly may be damaged due to a defective printed circuit board assembly or manual work, an economic loss may be incurred.
I have found that inefficient test methods and test devices can be extremely inconvenient. Efforts have been made to improve testing methods and devices.
Exemplars of recent efforts in the art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,480 for DEVICE FOR TESTING CONNECTOR HAVING MULTIPLE TERMINALS THEREIN issued to Hatagishi et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,438 for DEVICE FOR TESTING A CONNECTOR HAVING MULTIPLE TERMINALS THEREIN issued to Okura; U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,007 for UNIVERSAL TEST AND BURN-IN SOCKET ADAPTABLE TO VARYING IC MODULE THICKNESS issued to Gaschke; U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,780 for TRI-AXIS AUTOMATED TEST SYSTEM FOR PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS issued to Powers et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,374 for DUAL LEVEL TEST FIXTURE issued to St. Onge; U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,605 for DEVICE FOR TESTING CONTACTING AND/OR WIRING OF SOCKETS ON A CIRCUIT BOARD issued to Lang-Dahlke; U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,144 for TEST JIG AND METHOD FOR PROBING A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD issued to Davidson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,655 for ESD PROTECTION FOR UNIVERSAL GRID TYPE TEST FIXTURES issued to Johnston et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,884 for CONNECTOR TESTING DEVICE issued to Kodama; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,888 for METHOD FOR TRANSPORTING AND TESTING WAFERS issued to Cheng.
While these recent efforts provide advantages, I note that they fail to adequately provide an improved and convenient unified test system and test method.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a unified test system and a test method using the same which can save the cost necessary for a test and a working time by unifying processes for testing the performance of a printed circuit board assembly of a hard disk drive.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a unified test system and a test method using the same which can improve the yield of production by unifying and automating processes for testing the performance of a printed circuit board assembly of a hard disk drive.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a unified test system for testing the performance of a printed circuit board assembly, including a pin board from which test process connection pins having different height project, wherein the pin board is mounted on a main frame; a masking board at which holes are formed so that the connection pins can be connected with the printed circuit board assembly loaded thereon by passing through the holes upon loading onto the pin board; a first frame which is supported by first guide rods installed upright at the main frame and has a first cylinder installed at its upper part and driven up and down; a second frame having a power input connector and a signal interface connector installed at its lower part, wherein the second frame moves along the first guide rods when the first cylinder is driven to connect the ii connection pins with the printed circuit board assembly by pressing the printed circuit board assembly downward; a second cylinder installed at the upper part of the second frame and driven back and forth; and a third frame having at its upper part a head disk assembly connected by pins with the printed circuit board assembly when the second frame has moved downward, wherein the third frame moves along second guide rods when the second cylinder is driven to connect the power input connector and the signal interface connector with power input pins and signal interface pins, respectively, of the printed circuit board assembly.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a unified test process for testing the performance of a printed circuit board assembly includes the steps of loading a masking board and the printed circuit board assembly onto a pin board from which test process connection pins having different height project; connecting the test process connection pins, a power input connector and a signal interface connector with the printed circuit board assembly and pins installed on the printed circuit board assembly; generating in-circuit-test signals to test the printed circuit board assembly; connecting only function-circuit-test connection pins among the test process connection pins with the printed circuit board assembly, and testing functions between the printed circuit board assembly and a head disk assembly; and displaying results of testing the printed circuit board assembly and the functions.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an apparatus testing performance of a printed circuit board, said apparatus comprising: a base being located at a lower surface of said apparatus; a test unit having a head disk assembly and being operationally coupled to said apparatus; a first plate being supported by first guide rods installed at said base, being movable along a first path of conveyance toward and away from said base, and having a plurality of disk connector pins operationally coupled with the head disk assembly; a pin board being installed at said base, being disposed between said base and said first plate, having a first plurality of connection pins projecting a first distance toward said first plate, and having a second plurality of connection pins projecting a second distance toward said first plate, said first distance being different from said second distance; a masking board being movably coupled to said pin board, being movable toward and away from said pin board, and being disposed between said pin board and said first plate, said masking board receiving a printed circuit board assembly having power input pins and signal interface pins, said plurality of disk connector pins of said first plate projecting toward the printed circuit board assembly; a second plate being supported by second guide rods, being moveably coupled to said first plate, being movable along a
Han Jong-Hyung
Kwak Tae-Young
Sim Yong-Taek
Brown Glenn W.
Bushnell , Esq. Robert E.
Hamdan Wasseem H.
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
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