Boundary Scan for PCB Test

Many companies are developing single board products with boundary-scan that adhere to the CompactPCI specification. CompactPCI is an adaptation of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) specification for industrial and/or embedded applications that require a robust mechanical form factor. In the embedded world, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are quickly migrating from expensive proprietary product technologies to PCI compliant solutions.

The cost equation for digital test using In-Circuit Test (ICT) negatively impacts the ROI of a CompactPCI product by:

1. Complicating the design process as ICT requires significant access on the PCB to accommodate a bed-of-nails test fixturing
2. Requiring costly test fixture that cannot be built until the PCB is nearly complete
3. ICT Pogo-pins greatly impair signal integrity

Boundary Scan platform for CompactPCI

Intellitech's RCT-II Tester Boundary Scan Tester is a cost-effective replacement for traditional ICT when testing PCI or CompactPCI PCBs. Incorporating proper IEEE 1149.1 Design for Test (DFT) techniques on CompactPCI cards eliminates the need to perform digital test on expensive "pogo-pin" or bed-of-nails-based ICT equipment. RCT-II supports high-volume manufacturing test for 1149.1 compliant CompactPCI cards.

Test costs can be lowered further with the Eclipse Boundary Scan Test Development Environment. Eclipse provides design and test engineers with a comprehensive set of powerful tools that they can use to bring up and debug new designs as well as automatically create and validate high fault coverage 1149.1-based PCB test suites for CompactPCI PCBs.

Eclipse and RCT-II reduce digital testing costs over In-Circuit Test (ICT) to positively impact the ROI of CompactPCI products by:

1. Simplifying design and test with Eclipse
   • Eclipse leverages 1149.1 test infrastructure to eliminate the need for designers to add test points
   • Fixtureless debug utilities SLP and VFA helps designer quickly bring up their PCI-based products

2. RCT-II lowers test fixturing costs compared to ICT by using one interface card for all compactPCI cards

3. RCT-II has 640 programmable IO pins
   • This IO enables in-system FLASH programming, FPGA configuration, memory test, at-speed IC BIST
   • IO can improve test coverage by adding more control and observe points

RCT-II CompactPCI DUT Board

The CompactPCI DUT board adds edge connector connectivity to the RCT-II tester, which enhances fault coverage, and debug capabilities. The standard CompactPCI interface safely powers the board, connects I/O to edge connections, and drives boundary-scan on the TAP signals. There are two available slots which can be used for board to board interconnect test, two individual board tests, or a combination of a functional board and it's corresponding I/O or transition card. (large photo)