Benefits of using ATE systems in the testing of printed circuit boards

An industrial-based pragmatic review is given of the economic and product-quality consequences of automatic test equipment (ATE) usage in printed circuit-board testing. Results indicated that the use of ATE systems in printed circuit-board test operations results in definable economic and quality-level benefits. Supporting data behind this conclusion was provided by the test operations at twenty industrial companies. The majority of these companies realized both economic savings and quality improvements with their ATE systems. Productivity and/or labor cost reductions in test operations caused substantial economic savings for the companies. Quality improvements were more difficult to quantify; however, there was general agreement that ATE systems allowed boards to be more thoroughly tested than was previously possible