Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1428512
24 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 for example, very so surfaces, then you risk touching the point at the edge. You will get a big hit mark. With this kind of technology, especially if you have big server boards, for example, there are a lot of layers inside. ere's a big dimension. You need an optical calibra- tion and some partial improvement of the cali- bration over these long sizes to optimize posi- tioning independently from top and bottom to always hit the pad in the center. Only with this capability do you get approval from the qual- ity manager. Starkey: Sure. Give me an example of what you consider to be "long." Brandt: For us, big panel sizes are always the server and back panel boards, which are larger than 24 x 21 inches. We have different machines with an A7-16 to reach panel sizes up to one meter long with a dimension of one meter by 600 mm, or one meter by 800 mm. e biggest machine we ever produced was a 24-head flying probe machine with a test area of 1.5 meters by one meter. is is the biggest machine we have ever produced. is is not a standard machine, but one we produce on customer demand. Starkey: It's one thing to produce the machine to test it and another thing to actually manu- facture the product that you're going to test. B r a n d t : Th e s e a r e n i c h e products. We produce a maximum of one machine per month, and a maximum of 10 of these oversized machines per year. In comparison, we produce approximately four to six automatic flying probes per month. So, when you talk about the tendencies of the mar- ket as future demand from the customer, this is more in the direction of automation. e own- ers are looking for reliable workers, not only here in the European or U.S. markets, but also in Asia. ey now convert all their manual machines to automatic machines. Starkey: Peter, in the past, flying probe sys- tems were never really considered for testing volume production. You already mentioned, in certain applications like the production of smartphones, that because they're produced in very large volumes, you could produce a spe- cialist grid test fixture for testing that sort of product. But for the more general state-of-the- art circuit board product, the current leading- edge design density really exceeds the mechan- ical capability and cost-effectiveness of classi- cal grid testing. e focus has been on flying probe testing and that's demanded improve- ments in probing speeds and automated panel handling. What sort of throughputs are cur- rently achievable? Brandt: When you look at the typical con- sumable application in North America or in Europe, or some high-density applications in Asia, you can approximately—if you have a test board with 5,000 test points, multilayer board—reach a one-minute cycle time on the flying probe machine. Depending on the mea- surement parameters, you can reach around 50, 100, or sometimes 150 boards in one hour, which is not in the range of a grid system, because the grid system is still able to reach