Decision support for test and debug areas in RF manufacturing

Abstract

The last few years have seen the rapid growth of products in the wireless segment. Electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers have evolved to offer testing and box build services to their customers. Data management is vital in the test, debug and rework areas. Technicians who debug the board provide feedback vital for process and even design improvements. The DebugTech system was developed to provide the technicians and engineers with a real-time software based decision support system. The supplementary objectives included knowledge sharing, elimination of paper travelers, making available real-time test data to technicians and engineers. A 'script' (TestAnalyzer) was written to extract data directly from the test server and this data was logged into a database at regular intervals. At the time of debug, this information was displayed to the operators who would then proceed to debug the assembly and log the defects into the database. This information was summarized in a 'defect tree' that was used by the technicians as a decision support feature for faster debugging. The TestAnalyzer and DebugTech systems helped in the elimination of paper travellers, improving productivity and second pass yield at the test stations.