Thermotron - Product Test Solutions : Continuity Monitoring System

Continuity Monitoring Test System (PTS-CMS-352)

The PTS-CMS-352 is an innovative testing solution designed by Thermotron's Product Test Solutions (PTS) group for finding intermittent faults in solder joints, connectors, switches, or relays. Designed as a complete turn-key automated test system, the PTS-CMS-352 consists of a Thermotron S-8-8200 environmental chamber and a Thermotron PTS Continuity Monitoring System (CMS).

PTS-CMS-352

The Continuity Monitoring System is designed to detect solder and connection faults due to solder cracks, solder degradation, contact degradation, misalignment, and oxidation. The CMS will simultaneously monitor for discontinuities while measuring and recording resistance for thousands of channels in parallel. Discontinuity (event) detection of intermittent solder joint and connection failures as short as 100ns can be captured. The Continuity Monitoring System will measure and log resistance for trend analysis and validation of hard failures.

Key Benefits

• Promotes accelerated solder joint reliability testing
• Combines high speed event detection and accurate resistance measurement into one powerful instrument
• Programmable resistance thresholds, durations, counts, and temp profiles are used for event qualification
• Individual dedicated programmable current source per continuity path.
• Accurately detects discontinuity events down to 100ns.
• Resistance measurements are performed without disrupting continuous monitoring.
• Meets IPC-SM-785 guidelines for accelerated reliability testing of surface mount attachments.

The PTS-CMS-352 contains one CMS chassis which provides monitoring for 352 channels. Each CMS chassis can accommodate up to 11 modules with 32 channels each. Multiple chassis can be rack-mounted for applications requiring higher channel counts (up to 1056 per rack!), so please contact us if you require a higher channel count.

Dual Mode Operation

Since the Continuity Monitoring System can detect discontinuity events and measure resistance, a meaningful combination of testing techniques can be applied to derive the most valuable data from the test. Hard failures can be validated, and trends on degradations can be detected.

CMS Hardware

Implementation
• Each 32 channel module integrates a microprocessor for real-time performance and programmability.
• High performance analog circuitry used for "front-end" functions.
• High speed event detection functions implemented in custom digital logic.
Discontinuity Detection
• Thresholds: Programmable resistance levels for each channel.
• Durations: Programmable recognition of minimum discontinuity duration
• Counts: Programmable recognition of minimum discontinuity counts
Resistance Measurement
• Type: Paralleled with Event Detection
(allows resistance measurement without disrupting continuous discontinuity detection).
• Range: 0.1 ohm to 1K ohm.
Current Source
• Independent current source per channel.

CMS Software

Independent channel control of activation/deactivation.
• Resistance limit (failure level) adjustment.
• Discontinuity duration (time) from 100ns to 1.0ms. Discontinuities greater than the selected value will cause a failure.
• Discontinuity quantity (before failure is declared).
• Input Polarity selection allowing detection of connections which may "open" to a high resistance, or connections which may "short" to a low resistance.
• Discontinuity reset delay from 80ms to 5.0s allows spurious "detection" avoidance.
• Each channel can be individually named.
• Each channel can be assigned to a "Device Under Test:" and a "Pin Number", simplifying correlation between test boards and CMS channels.
• A data logging interval can be set, which determines the interval between when each CMS channel is sampled and when the resistance value is logged to a file.
• A delay can be set before continuity is monitored to allow time for external conditions to stabilize before monitoring begins.
Independent channel control of wire modes
• 1-wire measurements with common ground (single ended). 32 channels per module.
• 2-wire measurements (differential readings). 16 channels per module.
• 4-wire measurements (differential readings separate from current source). 16 channels per module.

Thermotron S-8-8200 Temperature Chamber
Temperature Range:	-70°C to +180°C (-94°F to 356°F)
Cooling Change Rate:	+180°C to -65°C (+356°F to -85°F)in 75 minutes
Heating Change Rate:	-65°C to +180°C (-85°F to 356°F)in 42 minutes
Temperature Control Tolerance:	0.3°C (0.5°F)
Temperature Uniformity:	0.7°C (1.1°F)
Cubic Volume:	8 cubic feet (227 liters)
Workspace Dimensions:	24"w x 24"d x 24"h (61w x 61d x 61h cm)
Move-In Dimensions:	35"w x 49"d x 73"h (89w x 124d x 185h cm)
Noise Level:	60dBA Heating, 70 dBA Cooling