PCBA Test

PCBA Test

Definition Of PCBA Test

PCBA test is a test of a PCBA board with electronic components installed. Before delivery, we will use many testing methods for installed PCBAs. PCBA Test refers to the electrical conductivity and input and output value-based testing of boards with mounted electronic components. The PCB circuit board design has different test points between the voltage and current and other numerical relationships. You need to use professional test equipment or manual operation of the multimeter approach to testing the test points to verify whether the actual PCBA board meets the design requirements.

For large quantities of PCBA board processing must be tested, we will provide the corresponding fixture to assist in the efficient completion. The principle of the test fixture is to connect the test point of the PCB board through the test thimble. After power-on, critical data such as voltage and current in the circuit are obtained and displayed on the display screen of the test fixture to achieve the purpose of rapid detection. When the customer designs the PCB board, the engineer will consider its test solution, reserve PCB test points, and issue the manufacturer’s professional test documents or test solutions. 

Why PCBA Testing?

PCBA testing is the most critical quality control link in the whole PCBA production process, and we will test in strict accordance with PCBA testing standards. The production and processing process of PCBA is very complex. That includes PCB board production, component procurement, and inspection. In the production and processing process, SMT placement assembly, DIP plug-in, PCBA test, and many other essential links may be due to equipment or may be due to improper equipment or operation and various problems. Venture Electronics’ testing department is experienced and professional. Our in-house R&D technology can professionally customize PCBA processing solutions to meet customers’ needs and provide them with high-quality PCBA products.

PCBA Testing Principle

Venture’s test team of test point on the PCBA board and test team connection by FCT has grown test frame and formed a complete pathway, connected to a computer and burner, and uploaded the MCU program. That program captures the user’s input action (e.g., long press on a switch for 3 seconds) and controls the on/off of the adjacent circuits (e.g., flashing LEDs, etc.) or drives the motor to rotate. Engineers observe the voltage and current value between the test points of the FCT test and verify whether this information meets the design requirements of our customers to achieve the test of the PCBA board.

PCBA Testing Methods

• Manual visual inspection: Technicians can visually examine each environment of the PCBA process. Manual visual inspection of PCBA components is the most primitive method of PCBA quality inspection. Only with eyes and magnifying glass to check the welding of the circuit and electronic components of the PCBA board, such as welding method, welding spot fusion, welding is not enough, and welding is not complete,
• In-circuit tester (ICT): Technicians widely use the online detector in the PCBA processing industry for its excellent detection performance. ICT can identify almost all the soldering and component problems in PCBA with fast speed and high stability. The electronic probe tests the populated printed circuit board (PCB) to check fundamental quantities such as short circuits, open circuits, resistance, capacitance, etc., to indicate whether the manufacturers correctly manufactured the component.
• Automatic optical inspection (AOI): This is a non-contact detection method. Automatic optical detection plays a vital role in detection. Automatic optical inspection is an automated visual inspection of the PCB manufacturing process. The camera automatically scans catastrophic failures (such as missing parts) and quality defects (such as circular size or shape or component deflection) of the PCBA board.
• Functional Circuit Test: Functional test generally refers to the test after the technicians power the PCBA on, mainly including voltage, current, power, power factor, frequency, duty cycle, brightness and color, character recognition, sound recognition, temperature measurement, pressure measurement, motion control, FLASH, and EEPROM recording test items. FCT automatic test equipment is mainly a kind of open software and hardware architecture design. It can be a very flexible operation, generally for the expansion of hardware and the fast and convenient establishment of test programs and services. Generally, it can support a variety of instruments and can be flexibly configured on-demand; Moreover, it should have rich essential test items and provide users with standard, flexible, and standardized solutions as much as possible.
• Sample Inspection: Before we produce the PCBA in batches, we conduct a sample test with the assembly department to check whether the SMT equipment was ready properly, which could prevent problems in the production of PCBA boards during batch production. Professionals call it the first check or first article inspection, leading to PCBA board production problems.
• X-Ray: Used to check whether PAD components such as BGA and QFN are hidden. And it is used for non-destructive testing and analysis of semiconductor components, testing content: 1. The foreign matter inside the IC (metal wire, redundant wire, redundant Die); 2. IC linear defects (such as collapsed line, line swing, tight line, high arc, Low line arc, flat top, flying line, low line, broken line, and other harmful products).”

Venture Electronics’ PCB Test Cases

90% of our company’s PCBA orders are requested to be tested by our customers. The customer provides the test method, and we test it before shipping. Some test tools need to be provided by customers and placed in our warehouse for future orders. The testing process of each PCBA order will be recorded and archived for our subsequent review. We will also share the test process with our customers on video.

The whole testing process is also very successful. If we encounter a problem in a particular testing session, we will have a video conference with the customer to consult it. PCBA testing is an essential part of the entire PCBA manufacturing supply chain to control the quality of the final data results. In standardized design and manufacturing management, professionals must recommend and consider the implementation of the PCBA testing.