Thermal energy emission diagnostics enhancement to the advanced power supply test system

The Advanced Power Supply Test Station (APSTS) is a system used for automated power supply testing. The capabilities of this system have been enhanced by the development and integration of a Thermal Diagnostic Instrument to provide thermal energy emission diagnostics. Thermal images of a power supply circuit board are acquired at intervals during initial power-on. A projective mapping technique based on geometric image warping is used to locate individual components in these images given arbitrary alignment between the board and the imager. A unique energy ratio calculation is used to normalize the effects of emissivity in the measured thermal values for each component. A fuzzy logic expert system and an artificial neural network are used to compute likelihood of failure estimates from these energy ratio values. Fuzzy logic membership functions are based on experimental data from normal and failed circuit boards, and rules are based on the knowledge of the board circuits.