Trends in automatic testing of electronic devices

A review of recent trends in the automated testing of electronic devices is presented for both commercial and military operations. The spinoffs from military ATE initiatives provide new opportunities for the commercial electronics industry. Improved software development tools reduce test development time. New ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) for automatic test applications reduce hardware costs and increase portability. Combined as part of a PC-based system, these two strategies reduce the need for more costly ATE