Saifon Technologies performs electrical testing to identify all the minor flaws in the production process – short circuits, breakages, and mismatches in current resistance on the surface.

Testing takes place at the last stage of printing circuit boards.

How we test

In the course of testing, electrical connections are checked at the locations of the output points of the circuits and in the contact areas and the integrity of the conductors is also checked. The possibility of short circuits is avoided.

As a result, manufacturing defects are excluded. Printed circuit boards that have passed the test perfectly are ready for shipment to the end buyer.

The time of checking products depends significantly on the number of layers on the board, the availability of additional functions, and the specifics of a particular model. It usually takes one day.

When the area of printed circuit boards is less than 500 dm², the Flying Probe method is used;
If the circuit board area is more than 500 dm², an adapter method is used, which will be more economically correct.

Several types of testing are suitable for different situations:

Now let's look into each process in more detail.

Using adapters:

The Flying Probe method:

The second method is using adapters. This method of checking printed circuit boards is used by Saifon Technologies when it is necessary to check large batches of printed circuit boards.

The method requires the purchase of additional equipment – analyzers, which are manufactured specifically for the configuration of printed circuit boards with all its specifics. The procedure is very accurate but, at the same time, complicated due to the need to manufacture equipment additionally. But in serial production, the adapter method pays for itself since it significantly reduces the time for checking one unit of circuit boards.

The Flying Probe method got its name because of the specifics of its work: the hardware and software complex has from two to four probes with probes that check the circuit of the printed circuit board at the time of conductor breaks and short circuits.

There are different variations of this design: horizontal, vertical models, automatic and manual. The number of probes also varies.

The method is quite economical since it does not require additional equipment for verification. Due to the absence of the need to manufacture adapters, the technique is ideal for small batches and significantly reduces the time for testing circuit boards.

Since multilayer printed circuit boards are very complex devices, it is impossible to test them quickly.

Testing of multilayer printed circuit boards

The methods described above find KEPI with short-circuited layers and conductors, but it is impossible to determine their exact location in the circuit boards by them. And since the cost of multilayer boards can be extremely high, it is not cost-effective to reject an entire board because of one defective part.

There is special modern equipment that uses the “vector search” method. Such a device supplies a voltage to the area with the alleged malfunction, with the help of which changes in the flowing current are monitored, and, based on this, it is revealed where precisely the defect is located. The accuracy of such a device reaches milliamps, microvoltmeters, and milliohmmeters.

Why test PCBs

It is necessary to test printed circuit boards of all types to prevent the sale and use of defective devices at enterprises.

It is essential to remember that the sooner an error is noticed, the cheaper it will cost the company.

If the board with a quality guarantee turned out to be defective and was used in high-tech electronics, sooner or later, the equipment would fail, and due to a short circuit, the equipment may even wholly fail. The responsibility lies entirely with the manufacturing company.

Electrical testing of the boards is also carried out to avoid such costs.

Apart from conductor errors, testing can also verify whether the insulation layer meets the necessary protection parameters.