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Design for Test: how to ensure the quality of my electronic product by optimizing its production cost?
22 March 2023
LACROIX Electronics
Did you know that the testing strategy can have a significant impact on the manufacturing cost of your product? Achieving the expected quality objectives while optimizing the incurred costs is the essence of “Design for Test.” Discover our 3 tips for defining the most cost-effective and relevant testing strategy possible.
Firstly, we recommend integrating a Design for Test (DfT) step into your project management during the product design phase. By doing so, you will be able to:
- Challenge the card design to provide the best possible test coverage
- Anticipate the constraints of certain testing processes that will be recommended in your testability protocol.
- Adapt the product design, whether it’s at the level of the printed circuit board (PCB) topology or the electrical schematic.
By having a well-thought-out testing strategy early on, you ultimately enhance the quality of all phases of product industrialization and optimize your production cost.
Tip 1 - Define the testing strategy during the product design phase
What is DfT?
Design for Test, also known as DfT, is a methodology applied by Test specialists to define the testing strategy for an electronic assembly while minimizing its impacts on manufacturing or product cost. The objective of Design for Test (DfT) is to achieve the optimal balance between the targeted quality level and the financial investment that these testing operations may entail.
The product design may be subject to proposals for more or less significant modifications, depending on the project’s maturity. For example, certain electronic components may be recommended to enable the automation of the testing operation, which, without this adjustment, would have to be done manually.
CASE STUDY
More quality with less investment
We worked with a client from the home automation sector to redesign the testing strategy for their product.
By adding a structural test earlier in the manufacturing process, functional tests were optimized by increasing test coverage to achieve a defined quality rate of 20 ppm (parts per million).
Without this optimization, the number of testing equipment required to produce the planned quantity would have doubled.
💡 Did you know?
More than 95% of LACROIX’s customers have chosen to define their testing strategy upstream of the product’s industrialization. This way, they have limited the additional costs related to potential redesign of initial designs and avoided more expensive or less efficient testing.
Tip 2 - Define the degree of design modification and your priorities to choose the right test scenario
After analyzing all the failure risks to be covered, whether they are generated during the manufacturing process or related to the specifications of electronic components, the experts in ‘Design for Test’ propose several test scenarios.
The Design for Test strategy adapts to the needs and maturity of each project. It can be implemented partially, for example, focusing on specific aspects of the product only (PCB, design, or others). This choice will depend on the product’s maturity and the progress of its design, whether to revise its design more or less extensively. It is essential, then, to define the extent of your product’s evolution as well as its priorities in terms of quality, cost, and time.
We work together to define a testing strategy in line with your priorities. The goal is always to improve test performance or reduce their costs while maintaining an equal level of coverage, optimizing factors such as the number or nature of test operations.
Tip 3 - Choose an experienced partner at the forefront of testing technologies
Every project requires a different approach. Depending on the constraints and certain parameters to be controlled, customized testing strategies must be designed to meet quality objectives while optimizing costs.
The quality of DfT analyses should result in highly detailed reports on the testing strategy to be implemented. To achieve this, it is essential to master the latest technological innovations to create highly effective testing strategies.
CASE STUDY
To enhance the depth and speed of testability analysis, our DfT experts, for instance, utilize the TESTWAY software. This tool enhances the test coverage of a product by promptly identifying corrections and improvements required for the printed circuit board (PCB) design or other manufacturing characteristics.
Our competence in Design for Test is based on the expertise and experience we have gained in all our factories, where the testing strategies we develop are constantly optimized. The depth of testing we are capable of conducting is one of our strengths in the market. Furthermore, we are always ready to perform the necessary checks to assure our clients that the modifications or adjustments we have recommended adhere to the state of the art.
Don’t doubt it any longer, testing strategies allow you to optimize product quality without necessarily burdening your budget. With a relevant and efficient DfT strategy developed with experts, the investment in testing is perfectly balanced and controlled in relation to the expected quality.
To go further, discover how to best secure the sourcing of your components: read the article “3 ways to make your sourcing as secure as possible despite severe shortages of electronic components“