Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1428512
10 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 Feature Interview by Andy Shaughnessy and Happy Holden I-CONNECT007 Gardien Vice President Todd Kolmodin talks about test and inspection market driv- ers from his perspective as a test service pro- vider. Andy Shaughnessy and Happy Holden go down the "microvia rabbit hole" with Todd, as well as explore how OEM design require- ments are driving test and inspection function- ality and processes. When board layer counts and feature densities force longer test times, the tradeoffs to profitability for manufacturers become time and accuracy. Minimizing time while maximizing accuracy calls for new meth- ods, which Kolmodin explains. Andy Shaughnessy: Todd, will you give us an overview of test and inspection? Todd Kolmodin: We're seeing that the way to compete right now is bundling. In test and inspection, you have requirements from a cus- tomer now that are far beyond just what I need to test the board for opens and shorts. When the requirements now come in, we want the open and shorts. at's the "throw it on the table" given. But then they say, "We have some buried passives, some impedance, then some buried inductives, and HiPot; we have all these things that are added on there. Maybe they've moved into high voltage design. ey want 4-wire Kelvin high-resolution test- ing. ey want buried resistive testing because the Ohmega™-ply layered technology has really matured, and a lot of people are doing it. We test both in sub part innerlayer or final and we can figure out internal matrices of buried series resistance, parallel resistance, and combina- tional resistance. We have integrated multiple tests into the same equipment and it's a way we can stay competitive and provide a one-stop test ser- vice or quality assurance service without hav- ing to buy all kinds of equipment. ere are people buying grid testers and flying probes and then you're buying TDR equipment and Test and Inspection: Far Beyond Opens and Shorts