Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1428512
48 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 sis on AOI and 3D AOI. Perhaps AXI depend- ing on what you're doing and the volumes you are doing. You don't see a lot of exhibitors with their flying probes because they've been around for years. But I see the emphasis on sol- der paste inspection. AOI has always been big at the shows. I think those are the areas where people are focused. Even savvy customers that know a little bit are going to be looking for key things like 3D AOI, solder paste, and 3D solder paste inspection. Johnson: What advice would you give to the design teams who are putting together the designs to help make them as successful as pos- sible going through fab and assembly, regard- ing test? Capers: To design a bare board, have the shop build it, and do flying probe test based on your netlist, that's easy to do. Now, when you're talking about bed-of-nails testing or fly- ing probe testing on the finished assem- bly, it is a little more difficult. My advice is to talk to who you intend to use, to build and test your boards, see what the requirements are, what their testers are capable of, and whether it will be a bed- of-nails or a flying probe tester. ere are some parameters that they need to know. ey can make sure that their board is close to 100% testable because with most boards that you see, nobody takes any of this into consideration. When they just throw it over the wall and then say, "Wow, we only got 75% coverage on our test." We reply, "You know, 25% of it is not testable because you didn't have that in mind when you were doing this thing." So, talk to your suppliers and if you're just throwing it over the wall and hoping for the best, good luck to you. But if you're building, especially high-volume production and even on some of the lower volume mil- itary stuff, these designers know what they're doing. ey follow all the rules. My point is, if you're anticipating that you want full ICT test or flying probe test, you must make your product testable. You can't just throw a bunch of stuff out there and expect somebody to make it work for you. If you really care about your products and you want them to be tested 100% reliable, there are some things you can do. at's why we have all these nice little acronyms, like DFT, DFA. Design for test is huge, but a lot of peo- ple don't really pay much attention to it. Espe- cially design for assembly. Johnson: All right. I think you gave me a very meaty discussion. ank you. Capers: I hope this will be of some use. PCB007 Charlie Capers is vice president/general manager of Zentech Dallas.