ASTER Updates TestWay Reference

ASTER Technologies has developed a major new release of TestWay, the reference in Design for Excellence (DfX), by incorporating an integrated workflow from design through to product delivery.

DfX, also referred to as DfM (Design for Money), can be used as part of an organization's continuous improvement program to decrease product development time, product cost and manufacturing cycle time, while increasing product quality, reliability and customer satisfaction.

ASTER's solution relies on using traceability and repair loop information in order to qualify the customer defect universe. The defects include design defects, manufacturing defects and functional defects. TestWay is used to import the defect opportunities and identify the possible consequences of inadequate testability and test coverage on a new design.

TestWay has been developed to allow users to analyze each stage of the design to delivery workflow. TestWay estimates test coverage using theoretical models for a wide range of test and inspection strategies. These include APM (Automated Placement Machines), AOI, AXI, BST (Boundary-scan Test), FPT (Flying-probe Test), ICT and Functional Test. These models can be tuned to reflect the test and measurement capabilities of each individual target tester.

TestWay exports the CAD data into the native format useable by assembly machines, automated optical inspection, automated x-ray, in-circuit testers, flying-probe testers and boundary-scan testers in alignment with the simulated strategy. The outputs include the assembly and test programs, or input lists and test models, as well as test fixtures.

Once the test/inspection programs have been debugged and released, TestWay can read the completed test program or test report and compare the coverage between the estimated and measured analysis. The resultant analysis reports define the test coverage using industry standard metrics that enable the user to identify any misalignment between the estimated and real coverage.

For more information, visit ASTER Technologies.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.