The repair of electronic boards imposes considerable investments in experience and expertise, since it is often difficult to detect faults, and in most cases the diagnostic tools and information about the board to repair are not available.With this in mind,  Seica has utilized the know how acquired, as a leading manufacturer of  flying probe test systems, to create specific solutions dedicated to board repair and reverse engineering.

Seica has created a series of  “net-oriented” instruments and techniques which allow the system to compare the analog behavior of a net on a sample reference board and a faulty board, providing several indications useful for locating the defects (FNODE technique). In the same way, the PWMON technique makes it possible to analyze the behavior of the nets with power on the board, and to intercept all those faults on digital components that normally do not come out in a “cold” test.

The use of net-oriented test techniques is also strategic and practically essential in those situations when it is necessary to set up a test for a board for which the information (such as CAD data and electrical schematics) is either incomplete or lacking entirely. Troubleshooting faults is extremely difficult in this situation, unless the layout and electric schematics of the board can be “rebuilt”. For this purpose, Seica has developed a complete software environment which allows the user to take full advantage of all the resources available in the flying probe system to carry out reverse engineering tasks: with a sample board it is possible to rebuild all the connections present, define a test point for every single net and apply the electric tests needed to identify the fault

These features are available on all Seica flying probe systems, but the AERIAL system offers a number of practical and ergonomic advantages as a test and repair tool. Its unique “vertical” architecture allows easy  visual and physical access to the board under test, probing accuracy (particularly when probes are hitting both sides of the board) and a small footprint. A set of 8 fixed channels is also available to provide direct ground or VCC connections to the board under test.

The PILOT is proposed in a double-side probing via 4 probes (2+2) (Pilot M4)

To know more:

Flying Prober for Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering for Board Test

Reverse Engineering beim Baugruppentest - German Language