Automation of Circuit Board Testing
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ISRN UTH-INGUTB-EX-E-2019/008-SE Examensarbete 15 hp Juni 2019 Automation of Circuit Board Testing Filip Palm Abstract Automation of Circuit Board Testing Filip Palm Teknisk- naturvetenskaplig fakultet UTH-enheten The testing of printed circuit boards (PCBs) is a common quality control process mandatory for any of the circuit board factories Besöksadress: to guarantee the quality and functionality of the PCBs. The manual Ångströmlaboratoriet Lägerhyddsvägen 1 operation of the testing process by an operator will be too Hus 4, Plan 0 difficult for a large volume of PCBs. Therefore, the automation of PCB testing becomes necessary. Postadress: Box 536 751 21 Uppsala The purpose of this project is to develop an automated unit for pressing a PCB down onto a test platform, which is a part of the Telefon: automated PCB testing system. The unit consists of two linear 018 – 471 30 03 actuators, two motor drivers, two micro switches, three buttons, Telefax: and an Arduino UNO micro-controller board. The actuators driven by 018 – 471 30 00 the motor drivers move the PCB and press it with force needed. The micro switches were placed at the start and stop positions of the Hemsida: movement. The buttons were used to control the actuators' http://www.teknat.uu.se/student movements separately for the sake of of calibrating the unit. The Arduino was programmed to control the unit. It took in the values from the buttons and switches and drove the actuators accordingly. A mechnical construction of the unit was created. It is shown to be stable and able to allow the actuators to transfer the force evenly onto the PCB. The electrical part of the unit was tested first in order to verify the programming of the Arduino and make sure everything work as it should. The final system was tested to see that the specifications are met. The results showed that the unit worked with the fulfilment of the specifications. Future work would be aimed towards improving the unit created and continuing work on the rest of the automation system. Handledare: Axel Isaksson Ämnesgranskare: Ping Wu Examinator: Tomas Nyberg ISRN UTH-INGUTB-EX-E-2019/008-SE Foreword I would like to thank my supervisor Axel Isaksson for the help he gave me during the project. I would like to thank Syntonic Test Systems AB for providing the tools needed to complete the project. I would also like to thank Ping Wu for guiding me during the writing of the thesis. 3 Sammanfattning Att testa kretskort är en viktig del i produktionslinan om förtetag vill garantera kvaliteten och funktionen av kretskorten. Testprocessen använder en opperatör, detta fungerar väl för mindre volymer av kretskort. Om volymen skulle skalas upp så används automation för att öka effektiviteten och tillåter opperatören göra andra uppgifter. Meningen med det här projektet är att skapa ett automatiserat system som trycker ner ett kretskort på en testplatform. Det skulle kunna styras av en dator och man skulle kunna köra varje sida separat. Systemet innehöll två stycken linjär aktuatorer, två micro switchar, tre knappar, två motordrivare och en Ardui- no. Arduinon styrde hela systemet, den kopplades till motordrivarna, switcharna, knapparna och datorn. Switcharna styrde vid vilken höjd motorerna skulle stanna. Knapparna styrde varje sida separat, denna funktionen användes för att kalibrera systemet. Motordrivarna var kopplade till motorerna och gav effekten för att driva dem. En extern struktur var byggd av akrylplast, denna struktur gav stabilitet till systemet och gjorde att aktuatorerna tryckte jämnt på kretskortet. Testerna som utfördes på systemet, gjordes för att verifiera funktionaliteten av systemet. När de elektriska delarna kopplades ihop testades programmet, så aktuatorerna rörde sig som dem skulle och att Arduinon reagerade på knapptryckningarna. När allt sattes ihop testades hastigheten av systemet och hur långt aktu- atorerna kunde trycka ner kretskortet. Resultatet visade att systemet fungera som specificerat. Systemet var långsammare och hade något mindre kraft jämnfört med orginal systemet. Fortsätt arbete kommer bestå av att förbättra eller om konstrurera det nuvarande systemet och fortsätta på resten av automationssystemet. 4 Contents 1 Introduction 7 1.1 Background..............................................7 1.2 Purpose and Goals..........................................7 1.3 Tasks and Scopes...........................................7 1.4 Outline................................................8 2 Methods and Theory 9 2.1 In-circuit test methods........................................9 2.1.1 Introduction.........................................9 2.1.2 Bed of Nails..........................................9 2.1.3 Flying probe test....................................... 10 2.2 Automation of PCB testing..................................... 11 2.2.1 Automated PCB testing system............................... 11 2.2.2 Aspects of automatic control theory............................ 12 3 Implementation 13 3.1 Hardware............................................... 13 3.1.1 The BON........................................... 13 3.1.2 Microcontroller........................................ 13 3.1.3 Motor Driver......................................... 14 3.1.4 Linear Actuators....................................... 16 3.1.5 Switches............................................ 19 3.2 Software................................................ 19 3.3 Implementation............................................ 19 3.3.1 Connecting the motors.................................... 19 3.3.2 Connecting the motor driver................................ 20 3.3.3 Connecting the Switches................................... 20 3.3.4 Programming......................................... 21 3.3.5 Mechanical Construction.................................. 22 3.3.6 The Complete System.................................... 22 3.4 Tests.................................................. 23 4 Results and Discussion 25 4.1 Mechanical Results.......................................... 25 4.2 Electrical System Results...................................... 25 4.3 Speed and Force Results....................................... 25 4.4 Discussion............................................... 25 5 Conclusions and Future work 27 5 Abbreviations BON Bed of Nails DC Direct Current FPT Flying Probe Test IC Integrated Circuit ICT In-Circuit Test IDE Integrated Development Environment PCB Printed Circuit Board 6 1 Introduction 1.1 Background When producing PCBs there is bound to be faults. These faults can be wrong component placement, short circuits and open circuits. To insure that the products the manufacturer sells work, tests will need to be done. The most used test is some form of in-circuit test (ICT). The PCBs will be tested using probes, that can measure voltage, current. These values will be compared to a known working PCB to make sure all components are right. In-circuit test techniques can also find faulty integrated circuits. Some in-circuit testers can give the possibility to test IC:s functionality [1,2]. Syntronic Test Systems AB provides testing solutions to customers, these solutions are manually operated. An example is shown in figure 1.1. The operator places a card in the tester, closes the cover, tests are performed and the card is taken out. This manual test system works well with a smaller number of cards. But if the number of cards is scaled up, this test system will become ineffective. In this case, an automated test system is an effective solution. Figure 1.1: A tester provided by Syntronic. Automating the testing of PCBs is done because when the number of cards tested becomes large it becomes unviable to continue with manual labour. Automation is the process of minimizing the amount of human workload during for example production. An automated process will require minimal or no human inter- vention, some examples of automation is the heating of a oven and cruise control on a car. Because of the rapid advancement of technology during the 1900’s, digital computers became smaller and more powerful. This made it possible to create automated solutions to replace monotone and repeating jobs. Many test systems are monotone processes and to automate it would free up the operator to do other tasks. The current solutions are expensive, this means an automated test system is not viable for everyone. 1.2 Purpose and Goals The purpose of this project was to design and create a part of a automation system for PCB testing, in particular, a system that can hold a PCB and press it down on a PCB test platform automatically. The goal of the project is to create a system that can press a PCB down on the test platform. The designed system should be controlled by a computer. The system should have the possibility to be calibrated manually. 1.3 Tasks and Scopes The tasks are. 7 • Create a design. • Research and choose parts. • Build the electrical unit on breadboard. • Test the electrical unit • Construct the final system. • Test the final system. The limitations on the project are that the transport of the PCB to and from the test platform should not be taken into account and only one PCB at a time. 1.4 Outline The report is split up in different chapters. In chapter 2 the different ICT testing methods and how testing are automated is addressed. In chapter 3 the mechanical and electrical components, software used, the construction of the system and the tests done is presented. In chapter 4 the results are shown and discussed. Finally in chapter 5 the conclusion