As of now, the market worth of automatic test equipment is somewhere around $6 billion. Because a plethora of equipment is now equipped with electronics that are still to be tested, there is a chance that the number will rise.
ATE is considered to be a very helpful data acquisition and diagnostic equipment that is used to test not one but numerous electronic devices related to various industries. Some of them are aerospace, defense, industrial automation, and automotive. Basically, ATE semiconductor testing is clearly responsible for making sure that end users of various electronic devices are not exposed to danger whatsoever. In addition to this, better functionality is also the goal here.
Continue reading further to understand everything about ATE, its importance, and everything else that comes along with it. Therefore, without demanding much of your time, let us dive into the article straight away.
Explaining Automatic Testing Equipment
For anyone who is new to the term “automatic testing equipment, it is basically computerized machinery that is responsible to test the instruments to determine the outcomes of stress tests, quality, functionality, and performance performed on systems and electronic devices. Both programmed test gear and mechanized test hardware are indeed the very same. Both of them make use of the same ATE acronym. However, they are different terms that refer to the same equipment. Devices that are assessed by the ATE are explained as DUT (device under test).
A plethora of electronic devices are tested by ATE to make sure that the right performance, safety, and functionality of anyone using it can enjoy the perks that come along with it. All the devices that are tested by ATE consist of printed circuit boards, hard disk drives, modules, systems, and integrated circuits.
Components of an ATE System
According to studies, a simple and basic automated test solution consists of five different components that one should be familiar with. Mentioned below are all of them.
- Hardware: This is the first category that consists of standard workstations and mount servers. Basically, all of them and also power supplies, interface modules, controllers, analog inputs and outputs fall into this category.
- Software: This category covers everything from analysis, reporting, storage, test development, and management of the collection of the data.
- Instruments used for testing: This is another category that includes resistance, digital storage oscilloscope, inductance, and capacitance.
- Signal sources: Everything from the pulse generator, radiofrequency generator, waveform generator, etc falls into this section.
- Test probes: This is the section that determines the suitable connection between a DUT, UUT, EUI and an instrument that is used for testing.
All of these components are basically consolidated. The consolidation happens in one test station with the difference of portability and size. In addition to this, compact test stations, mammoth, stationary towers examining server rack cabinets also count. However, all of the automated test solutions make use of the same test instruments, signal sources, handlers, probes, software, and hardware. Only the configuration is different depending on the device that is tested by the customers, and the parameters that are in immense need of measu
