Printed Circuit Board Testing: Custom Functional Testing Solutions

printed circuit board testingThere is no such thing as a finished custom printed circuit board (PCB) design until the testing part is over. Functional testing, whether wired or wireless, is needed for all configurations, no matter what business they are in. However, it can be good to work with custom testing methods that better meet the needs of the contract maker. A printed circuit board testing option can be put through a number of different tests both during the manufacturing process and after production to make sure the quality is good. Of course, this will also rely on what the maker wants and what the PCB is used for. Some won’t need any extra testing besides the normal tests that are done during production, while others will need a lot of testing to make sure they are compliant.

There are certain technologies and equipment that are used in medicine, government production, military and defense manufacturing, and aircraft, which are all examples of fields that need high-level testing. To make sure the quality of your work, you should still use automated test tools with a functional test link on your printed circuit board designs, even if they won’t be used for sensitive applications. And even if the contract maker doesn’t need any special testing, you should still know what testing methods work best for the end product so you can do your own testing and make big changes at every stage of development.

Custom Testing Methods

Even though there are a lot of different tests that can be done to see how good a custom printed circuit board is, they will all fall into two main groups. One type of testing looks at the physical qualities of the PCB to see if it can withstand simulated use. The board can be stiff, flexible, or rigid-flexible. Material testing for a printed circuit board can be done in a lot of different ways, such as by peel testing, X-ray testing, solder testing, bend radius testing, contaminant testing, and flex testing. For a good idea of the quality of the board, it is important to make sure that this testing meets the standard requirements for the business.

Functional testing is often the last step in the manufacturing process. It tells you whether a printed circuit board passed or failed before it is sent to the contract maker. For this test, we want to make sure that the hardware of the product doesn’t have any flaws that could stop it from working as it should when it’s used. Functional and behavioral testing of the printed circuit board is needed. This can be done with automatic test equipment that is fixed or wireless. A functional test interface is used to link the PCB to the test equipment that acts like the real-life situation where the board will be used. You can get accurate results from tests that are easy to use and fully functional.

Functional Testing for Industry

It is important to do a physical test on the PCB materials to make sure they are of good quality, but standard and special wireless functional testing after production has a lot of benefits. The functional test interface simulates the product’s working environment and checks that it works correctly. This means that the contract maker doesn’t have to pay as much for testing tools for the final product. This is a huge selling point for people who make printed circuit boards. It saves them time and money and lets them put out new, creative goods faster without having to wait for testing.

For wireless functional testing, automated test equipment also improves other types of tests. This gives the maker more faith that the product as a whole is error-free. Testing can be used to make sure the product works so that fixing takes less time and changes can be made during production to make it run more smoothly. Our engineers can set up a functional testing process with the client or contract manufacturer that will help improve DUT testing (device under test) by using the power source or software loads to make it work right.

Custom Printed Circuit Board Design and Testing

You can count on EMC Technologies to help you reach your goals if you need unique solutions for automatic test equipment that is either a device under test (DUT) or a unit under test (UUT). Our ITAR-registered shop in Fall River, MA can do discrete wired and wireless functional testing for printed circuit board assemblies and electronic assemblies. We can also create PCBs, make custom connections, and do a lot more. To begin, please call us at 508-672-0808 or fill out our online order form.