PARALLEL RELAY TESTER

Overview

The Parallel Relay Tester was developed as a technology demonstrator for the NI Military/Aerospace Solutions Conference. The objective was to illustrate the following concepts:

1) Higher Production Throughput – multiple UUTs being tested in parallel
2) Lower Capital Equipment Costs – Instruments reused by multiple test sockets
3) Higher Resource Utilisation – Measurements are schedules to utilise idle instrumentation


In addition the system also demonstrated real time statistical analysis for production environments. Metrics were captured and displayed including:

1) Overall Test
   • Equipment Utilisation (%)
   • Cycle Time
   • Pass Rate
   • Waiting Time
   • Uptime
2) Measurements
   • Mean
   • Standard Deviation
   • Process Capability
     - Cp
     - Cpk

Solution

The system comprised 8 test sockets for socketed single-pole double-throw (SPDT) relays. A set of instruments within the tester were used to perform a series of tests on the relays, however these were shared resources (i.e. dedicated instruments were not assigned to each test socket). A switch matrix was used to route signals from the UUTs to the instrumentation and dedicated control signals were used to switch the relays. In addition a visual indicator and UUT presence sensor was available for each test socket.

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