All About ICT HP3070

Beside changing tolerances using unix, sometimes I edit many files using F8 and re-save\compile file for quick modification sometimes.

As an HP3070 engineer, I have to transfer files from/to between my PC and HP3070 quite often. I used both cuteftp and coreftp for these tasks. Here is how I set up these programs for my Windows PC, all you need is the ip address of your HP3070 and your username and password.

I’m sure there are many ways to detect LEDS at ICT. Many would use these color sensor inside the fixture. The only draw back for this type is the reliability and the costs of sensors themselves, also the fixture must be totally seal dark for the light sensors to work properly. I’ve never used any of these sensors for my LEDS tests. If we read the specs and the LEDS are well made, each color …Read More

I never like Test Expert, but since there are not many cad software out there and my company’s bought it already, I have to use it. The set up is also not very user friendly. Anyhow, I document this in case I get a new computer (mine is only 8 year old) with Windows 7 and I’ll have to re-install it again on the new system. The version we have is 9.1 right now. Locate …Read More

Since I’m an OEM developer, I kept our system software rev at the lowest since HP3070 software is not backward compatible. Sometimes, when we need to re-do the software for a fixture, we get the program folder back, we have to convert everything down to our system rev level. Our system software is 3.6 compares with others at 5+. Anyhow, regardless, to convert higher rev files to lower, here is how I do mine.

Many times we have to add additional tests that requires adding wires in the fixture. My board has 3 pressed fit mounting washers need to be tested at ICT for presence. The fixture vendor put 3 switches there with wires ready to be wired to the fixture. I do have the mounting hole with the designators MH10, MHW4 and MHW5 already in the board file, each of the hole has a NET name for their …Read More

All shorts test fail on all boards and yesterday they’re fine. Before we debug our fixture, run diagnostic for the system and find out one of the hybrid cards we used for the fixture has bad relays. We swapped the hybrid card and it moved to the new slot. While waiting for the service people to ship a new card (these days Agilent don’t troubleshoot and replace relays any more), we decided to find the …Read More

ICT test engineers in smaller OEM companies normally wear many hats, system maintenance is one of them. We may have the luxury of having a system in the company and it does fail once in a while although HP3070 is extremely reliable. When we run diagnostic for the whole system and we see failures on a certain cards, we need to identify the bad cards and sometimes we have to even troubleshoot down to the …Read More

These days, most of the CEMs HP3070 systems are old and some are not well kept up, their pins cards may fail in the middle of the run and our production line may halt for days. I believe in optimizing the config file to use as fewer hybrids cards and power supplies as possible. The fewer hybrid cards concentrated on a module means they can run with many existing systems with module with less hybrid …Read More

I had to program PIC28F8722 micro controller at ICT test station. I found a solution for less than $300. and some custom fixture designs. The main board design must have a 5 pins header which has ICT test points. MCLR, DATA, SCLK, GND, VCC. I found a PIC program to go on the internet for $200 including shipping. This box can be loaded with our firmware in hex using a usb port and programs the …Read More

I always set tolerances for all passive components in the board file to 1% to make sure IPG generates all guarding possible. For testing stability, I change all resistors to 10% and capacitors to 20%. If a board has many components with the same values, chances are, the tolerance for these components are generated the same. After debugging the golden boards, many components may pass with 1% or less, but I still change them before …Read More

Band Flatness Testing

If we want our analog tests to run much faster, make sure our config file is using control xt instead of control plus. The control plus can run with control xt compiled system, but not the other way around. If the program is develop with control plus, in order to use control xt option, we need to re-compile the config, wirelist and all analog tests, but we do save more than 50% in test time …Read More

These days, the backup tapes have been obsoleted, we don’t use them to back up and restore any more. Most of the working directories are backed up in Gzip files and transferred through ftb website, it’s fast, efficient and more reliable than these tapes. So, we normally pack the folder in tar format then gzip them. Open a unix window, cd to the directory before the directory we want to gzip. tar -cvf directory.tar directory …Read More

1. Connect the device through the HPIB of the power supply HP6624A (HPIB) or whatever your power supply model may be.  To check the hpib bus, go to shell as root: /opt/hp3070/bin/btio -hpib -scan    (this will tell you which HPIB exists, it should display your HP6624A or HP6621A).

All our dual level ICT fixtures are pneumatic. They use compressed air to actuate the air solenoid to push down the gate instead of pulling down like vacuum. Some of the CEMs site may need to have wiring installed for the pneumatic fixture to work with the vacuum port controller in the system. The pneumatic solenoids need 24V to actuate and we need to hook up the wires to the auxiliary power port in the …Read More

Since the world is changing, so is our flash program firmware. We need to update our hex file in the flash program whenever a new ECO comes out. This is how to update the hex file embedded in the program and verify files. Use cuteftp to transfer the new hex file from computer to the network hp3070. Make sure it’s in the “digital” directory. After transferred the hex file, cat ‘digital’ to make sure it’s …Read More

For any types of testers, it doesn’t matter if it’s functional testers or ICT testers, design for testability is always the key of having great products. It doesn’t matter how good a design is, if it’s not testable to produce quality and high yields product, it’s not a good design. The best products must be designed with testability from the beginning, especially if they’re going to use ICT as the gate of letting good products …Read More

Most of ICT test engineers only know of HP3070 and not A 3070 because the name has been so popular in the automatic test equipment communities. Agilent was spun off from HP many years ago, but most of people still use the old and reliable (10-15 year old) HP3070. Many years ago, people believe that bed of nails (ICT) testers should be put to rest, obsoleted, but in electronics manufacturing environment, it’s still the cheapest …Read More