ATE self test

The ability of automatic test equipment (ATE) to introspectively assess its own well-being as well as assess the well-being of the UUTs (units under test) external to itself has long been understood to be a major advantage of offline ATE. The author argues that this inherent potential ATE system capability has not been used effectively. It has been treated as an afterthought and implemented by the most prosaic of methods. The results of this inadequate and inappropriate treatment of ATE self-test has been stagnation in improved MTBF of new ATE systems and regression in MTTR. The maintenance and training problems for new and modern ATE have been exacerbated rather than reduced. The author contends that this situation is a result of neglect and apathy on the part of ATE systems developers who have failed to be innovative or attentive to modern system techniques in the design of self-test for their ATE. The author proposes a five-phase ATE self-test approach that he hopes can resolve the above-mentioned problems. The phases are: pre-ATE planning; ATE planning; self-test implementation; self-test maturity and evaluation; and self-test feedback/archiving