Time is precious for contract manufacturers, which is why Grossenbacher Systeme of St. Gallen in Switzerland chose XJTAG boundary scan to test customers’ assemblies and program on-board devices. XJTAG’s powerful features and intuitive user interface helped the company’s engineers quickly become expert users after a short and effective hands-on introduction.
Grossenbacher Systeme, which is part of the Swiss Amalthea Group, provides high-quality manufacturing services to companies in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, food, medical technology, industrial automation, smart buildings, security, transportation, logistics and communications. The company has achieved ISO 13485 certification for producing medical devices, and has special expertise in user-interface design.
With capacity to place 70 million components per year, Grossenbacher has chosen XJTAG boundary scan to help minimise test cycle times, quickly program devices like microcontrollers and EEPROMs, and accelerate debugging and repair.
“Boundary scan is a powerful part of our test strategy, and can cut the time to identify errors caused by incorrect assembly or connections,” explains Christoph Preisig, Team Leader, Test Engineering. “XJTAG has many features that help us create and run tests quickly and efficiently, and the user interface is easy to understand. After experiencing the introductory workshop, our engineers were soon up to speed.”
XJTAG makes testing boards easier, with an intuitive user interface that guides the user through the test setup process. An advanced Connectivity Test, which also tests pull resistors and logic devices, is built-in and helps minimise the time between setting up and capturing test results. In addition, libraries of editable test scripts are available for many types of non-JTAG components including memory devices. These tests are written in a high-level programming language that makes them easy to understand and use.
“Creating boundary scan tests for our boards is straightforward, and allows us to deliver fast turnaround times for customers. Our engineers have become proficient very quickly, and the technical support provided by XJTAG’s engineers is of a very high quality,” continues Christoph Preisig. “The tools for use in production and repair environments are also easy to use, with powerful schematic and layout viewers that pinpoint fault locations.”
XJTAG further accelerates production with special features for high-speed configuration of programmable devices like CPLDs and EEPROMs which can be used to assist in programming on-board flash. This technology minimises data on the boundary-scan chain to eliminate conventional limitations and permit a huge increase in programming speed.
Another important feature, which is important to Grossenbacher’s engineers, is the ability to control XJTAG boundary scan tests from a third-party test executive such as NI TestStand or custom-written windows applications. XJTAG can interoperate with a wide variety of other test equipment such as in-circuit test, functional test, flying-probe or inline inspection systems, either by being controlled by third party software or by using XJRunner, XJTAG’s standalone production environment software, to control the third party equipment.
“XJTAG makes it easy for us to work the way we want to, either through built-in user interfaces like XJAnalyser or XJRunner, or integrated with our other test equipment,” confirms Christoph Preisig. “Overall, XJTAG is easy to use, convenient, efficient and effective, and has quickly become popular with our engineers.”
