Interface cards bring chambers to boundary scan

TAP interface cards integrate environmental chambers for IEEE1149.x-based monitoring of stress tests such as HALT and HASS.

Goepel Electronic has extended its Scanflex JTAG/boundary scan hardware platform with two new TAP interface cards (TICs) designed specifically for the integration of environmental chambers for IEEE1149.x-based monitoring of stress tests such as HALT (highly accelerated life testing) and HASS (highly accelerated stress screening).

"The increasing complexity of modern boards is prompting many of our customers to utilise stress based test procedures and screenings", says Bettina Richter, Marketing and International Sales Manager for Goepel Electronic.

"With these new TAP interface cards, our innovative Scanflex platform now provides a professional off-the-shelf solution for such applications".

With the TIC03, Goepel Electronic introduces its third type of TAP interface cards (TIC).

The TIC03 is specified for operation in a temperature range from -40 to +85C.

In the environmental chamber, the TIC03 functions as active test head that can control the JTAG/boundary scan chain on the unit under test (UUT) with clock frequencies up to 80MHz.

The test head's differential link to the scanflex TAP transceiver, located outside the environmental chamber, supports reliable high-speed data transfers over distances up to 4m.

Run time delays of cable and UUT can be individually compensated per TAP by the Adycs technology, and so the cable length does not inhibit the performance.

The integration of the TIC03 as an active test head is a smart and safe solution for the UUTs electric stimulation and monitoring under environmental stress conditions, enabling a multitude of interesting applications such as externally triggered built-in-self-test (BIST), selective electric stress of specific circuit partitions, online monitoring of UUT functions to detect stress dependant faults, (re)programming of PLD and Flash with specific test configurations, or fault injection to verify the efficiency of dynamic fault detection mechanisms under extreme use conditions.

The TIC03 offers externally programmable input and output voltages for the TAP as well as relays for the galvanic isolation from the UUT (TIC03/SR version).

Additionally, TIC03 modules feature a mechanism to adapt the TAP interface to various driver requirements and signal classes, ensuring an ideal adaptation to the UUT.

The TIC03 is compatible with all Scanflex SFX-TAP(x)/FXT series TAP transceivers, which provide up to eight independent TAPs, and is fully supported in the industry leading JTAG/boundary scan software System Cascon from version 4.3 on.

System Cascon automatically recognises the TIC03 via the autodetect feature and offers specific failure monitoring functions for HASS/HALT like continuous loop, break on fail, time controlled change of stress pattern, adaptive failure isolation and incremental clock sweeping.

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