PRODUCTION TESTBENCH (ATE)
A complete production testbench, built for your board: the bed-of-nails fixture, the custom testboard, the computing module and our test software, installed on your line, with full per-board traceability and ongoing support.
IN SHORT
A working test station (fixture, testboard, computing module, software) plus identification hardware if you need it, the test sequence, the operator interface, the traceability database and its API, a results dashboard, documentation, and operator training.
For each board: checks electrical integrity, programs the firmware, runs functional tests, prints and links a serial number, and returns a clear Go / No-Go with the full detail behind it. Every measurement is kept.
A fixed price per step, approved before each step starts.
You do. Everything bespoke transfers to you; we keep only the generic core of the test platform.
Every board verified the same way, a permanent record for your audits and your end-customers, and your engineers staying on the product instead of building and maintaining a test rig.
A one-page summary you can forward internally is planned (PDF).
HOW IT WORKS
3D-printed parts and quick-action clamps that hold the board under test precisely and repeatably over the testboard, accommodating component heights, connectors and clearances. Because the parts are printed rather than machined, the fixture costs a fraction of a conventional one.
A PCB beneath the board under test, fitted with spring-loaded pogo pins that contact its test points. Nothing is soldered and nothing on your board is modified. The testboard routes every signal where it needs to go, adds signal conditioning and protection where required, and carries the interface to a standard computing module.
A standard compute module that plugs into the testboard. It runs the test software and the real-time, low-level signal control: the buses the test needs (SPI, I²C, UART, RS485, CAN…), GPIO, ADC channels, any programmable supplies or loads, and the firmware programmer (SWD, serial bootloader, JTAG, etc.).
Our web-based platform, running on that module: it executes the test sequence, talks to the instruments and the testboard, evaluates pass/fail, drives the operator interface, and writes the report.
WHAT IT DOES ON EACH BOARD
Supply-rail voltages, ground continuity, short-circuit checks, the voltages on outputs to connectors and peripherals, current draw via shunt, each measured against defined limits.
The board is flashed (SWD, serial bootloader, JTAG, whatever the board uses) and the flash is verified. The tests can run on a dedicated test firmware, written by you or entirely by us, or on your production firmware with its own test functions. If a test firmware was used, the sequence ends by flashing the production firmware, with whatever the product’s chain of trust requires: signed images, encryption, certificates provisioned for secure communication.
High-level features that exercise the hardware from end to end, which is the most efficient way to cover parts that are awkward to probe directly. Where it helps, the board’s CPU is held in reset and the computing module drives each peripheral directly over its bus, and the testboard emulates whatever the board expects around it, so each function can be exercised on its own.
A serial-number label is printed (e.g. Zebra) and scanned; a second QR links the unit to the production order or ERP; the serial is programmed into the device, so the physical label, the firmware identity and the test record all match.
The operator gets a clear pass/fail for the board, with drill-down into every criterion. All the raw measurements are stored along with the verdict.
THE OPERATOR, IN THE LOOP
The whole operator interface is a web app: the live test run with all its prompts, the Go / No-Go, the report browser. The operator uses it on a screen at the bench or from any browser, on site or over the internet, and several screens can follow the same run in sync.
Some steps are deliberately manual, and the app drives those too: it prompts the operator to scan a serial-number QR, confirm an LED actually lit, or press a button, and waits for the confirmation before moving on. A few of those steps could be automated, but automating them adds to the testboard and fixture cost for little real gain. We tune the balance between what the bench costs to build and what each test cycle costs to run.
HOW MUCH IT COVERS
The strategy combines two things. First, direct electrical tests: with the CPU held in reset, the computing module drives every peripheral over its own bus and reads back what it should see; programmable supplies and loads create known conditions; ADC channels measure real voltages and currents. Second, after the firmware is flashed, macroscopic functional tests exercise the paths that can only be checked with the firmware running.
On a representative project the combination reaches about 97%, roughly 30% from the electrical tests and 70% from the functional tests. We’ll tell you up front what falls outside that: things like ESD-protection diodes and passives with no dedicated test point, which would need specialised equipment beyond a standard ATE. Where it makes sense, we’ll also recommend test points to add in the next board revision so coverage goes up and the test gets simpler.
Figures are illustrative, from a representative project. Your board’s number falls out of the test-strategy analysis in step 1.
TRACEABILITY & INSPECTABILITY
Serial number, date and time, operator, station, production-order context, firmware version and checksum, every raw measurement, and the full verdict with the detail of every criterion.
A deterministic test sequence: the same board under the same conditions gives the same result. Instruments are calibratable and the calibration is recorded. If a field complaint comes back, you can pull that serial number and see exactly what happened.
First-pass yield by lot, by day, by week; histograms of measured values; drift detection that flags a component or process slowly going out of spec; configurable alerts; CSV/Excel export.
Scan the production-order QR to import its context; push results back via REST; keep live counters of boards tested, passed and failed per order.
To place here: a dashboard / report screenshot.
SUPPORT FROM A DISTANCE
KEEPING IT HEALTHY
WHAT WE DELIVER
HOW A PROJECT RUNS
Specify → testboard → fixture → software → deploy. Pricing, IP terms and the support envelope are described there.
Under NDA if you prefer. You’ll get back an outline test strategy: what we’d cover, how, and roughly what it takes. That first pass is free.