Advancing ATE systems with PXI based power-off diagnostic instrument technology

Typical military and aerospace power-on parametric or functional CCA tests reduce a failure to a cluster or ambiguity group of components. Adding PXI based power-off diagnostics validates detection and isolation of faulty components beyond the detailed parametric or functional testing and fault isolation of the test. Replacing the diagnostics portion of the test with power-off diagnostics allows reduced development time, enhanced fault isolation, while allowing the existing test to perform "ready for issue" verification. These existing tests assume that the defective unit under test (UUT) can accept power. If the UUT can not accept power, the PXI based power-off diagnostics allows diagnosis of those UUTs. Automating probing during the diagnostics increases productivity and accuracy. This COTS PXI based approach maximizes the diagnostic capability while lowering ambiguity levels for component level faults as well as decrease the total cost of test development.