MacroFab Engineering Podcast EP 266

The Expert

March 3, 2021 Hosted by Parker Dillmann, Stephen Kraig

Design for Testing means enabling your product to be tested easier or quicker. But what about the documentation and implementation of the testing?

  • Design for Manufacturing – Beyond the Digital Domain

    • Webinar that Chris Church (Co-Founder of MacroFab) will be co-hosting with Edwin Robledo of AutoDesk.
    • Topics are the following
      • Vias-in-Pad
      • Blind/Buried Vias vs. Back-drilling
      • Acid Traps
      • Stack-ups
      • Edge Clearances
      • Annular Rings

  • Building a Program and Testing procedure for your first production run

    • Take lots of pictures
    • Keep it up to date and version controlled
    • Hand off the procedure to a colleague and have them run through it
    • Work with your CM
      • MacroFab works closely to help flesh out procedures and fixture designs
    • What is you acceptable fall out from production
      • This is where scaling up production runs can help iron out QA procedures for your product
      • Find tolerancing issues with components
    • Keep in mind your target pricing

  • Elements of a good test procedure – THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

    • It is almost impossible to have too much information in your test procedure – within reason.
    • Remember – Your CM can always distill your information down to something less than what you provide
    • Typically they have one “expert” who knows everything and multiple operators who execute the tasks.
    • You don’t know when your documentation is needed so be thorough
    • Assume that the reader has basic skills.

  • Things to include in the documentation – preferably at the top

    • Product/assembly name
    • Test procedure Rev
    • List of board revisions that this procedure applies to
    • Map or image of terms or items
    • List of ALL software required
      • Do not assume that your CM has anything
      • If software version is important make sure this is called out
    • List of ALL files required
      • Be explicit with the names
      • Do not be shy with file structure
    • Be consistent
      • If you call a board X then always call it X

  • Test procedure Meat and potatoes

    • List of required equipment
      • What can be expected of a CM to have?
      • Be granular here. All the way down to cables
      • Do not be afraid to call out amazon links to required items
    • List every step
    • Avoid parallel anything – Sequential steps are the best
    • Always have criteria and be reasonable!
      • consider how the operator will approach your target and adjust accordingly!
      • Failures – Let the operator know what to do with a failure
      • Do not suggest “hot fixes”
    • Pictures are worth a thousand words
      • Pictures of test points
      • have pictures of your fancy script!
      • be explicit with the outputs!
    • If anything is to be marked or saved be explicit how and where to do it. If there is a sticker or label to be applied show a picture where you want it to go.

Listen to Circuit Break Ep #278 when Chris Church returns with Altium CEO Ted Pawela to discuss how the two companies are working together.

Hosts: Parker Dillmann, Stephen Kraig

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro!

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