Rugged general purpose mixed signal COTS based test system for military use

Today's military faces many obstacles with existing automatic test equipment (ATE). These include the need to reduce the total cost of ownership, facilitate intra- and inter-service interoperability, decrease logistics footprint, allow easy and cost effective technology insertion, and preserve existing TPS investment. This paper explores how these challenges are being met with the use of a rugged general purpose mixed signal COTS test system for military, aerospace, and homeland defense applications. This system can provide factory to field support of digital/analog/video/RF electronics. We investigate its open architecture approach based on PCI extensions for instrumentation (PXI) and industry leading software products and commercial standards. We also review the impact of future technology insertion. We address how PXI based systems can be equipped with a standard tester interface using COTS mass interconnect systems to facilitate interoperability. We also look at test system design aspects which help decrease logistics footprint issues. This includes size, weight, packaging, and transportation considerations. It also includes system self-test, field calibration, and input power flexibility to support mobile military operations. Lastly, we cover software translation techniques via automated test program conversion of legacy code to modern languages to preserve TPS investment.