The need for embedded intelligence in ATE

As military and commercial electronic components and systems become increasingly complex, more sophisticated testing is required to validate performance and diagnose failures. Trends show that while electronic part costs have declined significantly over the past few decades, the cost of testing electronic components has remained nearly constant. As a result, the cost of test encompasses a good percentage of the total cost of any electronic device. Decreasing test and troubleshooting complexity and time are important aspects of reducing the initial and maintenance costs of electronic systems. This paper presents a method to reduce the cost of test by applying embedded processing intelligence within instrumentation used for automatic test equipment (ATE). The advantages of embedded intelligence include reduced data transfer requirements, sophisticated signal processing and transformation, pass/fail characterization, and the application of standardized test methodologies. This paper describes this type of standardized testing using examples of telecom mask testing and video signal capture and analysis.