Diagnostics Infrastructure

Good diagnostics are a vital component of any electronic design, large or small. Who needs them, and why?

• Engineering, to test boards when they first arrive.
• SQA folks, to verify the design and to "burn in" over time in a chamber.
• Certification testing houses, to generate traffic and worst-case electrical activity during agency testing.
• Manufacturing, to confirm functionality coming off the production line.
• Sales, to give demonstrations to customers.

We write a ton of diagnostics every year, and it has become one of our specialties. Sometimes companies have the foresight to bring us in during the conceptual design phase of a project, and other times we are called in when boards have already arrived. We prefer the former, but we have learned how to scramble to deal with the latter.

• Embedded diagnostics firmware
• External functional testers