Reverse engineering for board test

Abstract

Historically, customers are faced with situations where CCA data is not available for a variety of reasons. Situations where Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) have been acquired by other OEMs or designs have been generated prior to the age of remote storage or escrow agents can result in the loss of data. Some companies, especially market segments such as depot repair, no longer have access to actual CAD or memory disks containing the original design files or source code of a particular CCA. With contract obligations up to 20 years what can a field repair shop or depot do to create documentation for a particular CCA? The answer lies in utilizing ATE Flying Probers particularly designed to ‘reverse engineer’ a CCA. This paper will go through the steps of how one premier OEM has added new features and techniques for creating a netlist, schematic, and ultimately a full ICT test program from nothing but a CCA. Using Seica's easy to use Viva wizard software, along with a series of powerful software techniques not previously marketed, and an Aerial double sided, multiple head, flying prober can reverse engineer a board in very little time. Reverse Engineering can assist the depots in documentation creation and full test functionality.