A solution for integrating the Vector CANCase XL with the Teradyne Test Station ICT

This paper presents the functional technical approach and test results related to an integration between the Vector CAN Case XL (CCXL) module and the Teradyne In Circuit Tester (ICT). The proposed application is the achievement of a collaboration between two industrial partners: Continental Automotive Romania (Timişoara Plant) and Alfa Test S.R.L. The need for such an integration has originated in the context of permanent focus on innovative production solutions. Since for Continental Timişoara, Vector tools have become a traditional investigation means in the research and development process, an emerging requirement was the transfer of this technology towards the production flow. The Teradyne Test Station has been selected as the ICT which should host and use the CCXL in the functional test procedures applied to a dashboard PCB. The resulting software application is a prototype. According to the author's knowledge, there is no other similar integration which is used for production purposes. Some of the capabilities offered by this solution include: communication protocol administration between the ICT software interface and the CCXL, automated formatting of CAN messages, arithmetic conversions, CAN frames segmentation, selection of useful information embedded in exchanged frames or the combination of ICT based measurements interposed between CAN dialogs. The proposed software architecture has been validated by a series of experimental results performed on different product versions. As a reference, the First Pass Yield (FPY) parameter demonstrates that the proposed approach is viable and can be successfully used to fulfill its purpose.