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Boundary-scan Tools from Corelis reduce development cost at
Spectral Systems, Inc. (SSI)
Testing prototype boards before designs
are even functional
Spectral
Systems, Inc. (SSI) is a leading-edge aerospace engineering
and product development company located in southwestern Ohio,
the birthplace of manned flight. SSI was founded in 1995 and has
grown very rapidly from an engineering service provider to a
developer and integrator of advanced Intelligence, Surveillance
and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Electronic Warfare (EW) systems,
sensors and embedded processors.
Ben Steele is
a program manager at Spectral Systems responsible for the design
and development of state-of-the-art, multi-channel,
multi-function digital receiver subsystems. Ben came to Corelis
looking for a more effective method for bringing up complex
prototype assemblies. The diminishing access of test points on
these complex board assemblies, due to fine pitch components and
restrictive packaging types such as BGA, often prevented the use
of traditional probing methods and was making board bring-up a
costly and time consuming process.
Design
engineers are often faced with a confounding problem when
bringing up new prototype assemblies. Detecting a manufacturing
defect before a design has been verified as “functional” can be
a frustrating task. When this problem is multiplied by the
inability to access crucial test points then the initial debug
process can become a huge bottleneck that slips the entire
development schedule. Aware of these potential pitfalls, Ben was
seeking for a more effective solution to help streamline this
initial debug process.
Using the
Corelis boundary scan system, SSI was able to create test
vectors and have a test plan in place prior to receiving their
first prototype boards from assembly. When the boards arrived,
they connected the Corelis boundary scan equipment to their
prototype boards through a single ribbon cable to a header
connector on their target boards. Before their embedded
processor fetched its first opcode, they were able to execute a
complete board level interconnect test, test on-board memory
devices, program CPLDs and Flash memory devices, and test system
logic clusters.
“The Corelis
boundary scan equipment we purchased has been extremely helpful
in getting our boards up and running. We've been able to
identify manufacturing defects and have them repaired prior to
trying to make the board functional. I'm sure this has saved
countless troubleshooting hours”, said Ben Steele, “We had spent
several weeks working on a previous board to find the defects
which could have been detected right away with the Corelis
boundary scan equipment. We are very pleased with the Corelis
Tools and their ease of use.”
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