US Patent:
20020147561, Oct 10, 2002
Inventors:
William Baracat - Sterling VA, US
Mark Brown - Beavercreek OH, US
Brian Bartlebaugh - Warrenton VA, US
Lisa Ferrett - Manassas VA, US
Fonda Liu - Rockville MD, US
International Classification:
G06F019/00
G01R027/28
G01R031/00
G01R031/14
Abstract:
A system and method for providing an intelligent wire testing capability for complex hardware systems. The system is comprised of a software application with a relational database interfacing with an automatic test equipment module. The relational database contains all of a system's architecture information plus all of the text and parametric information associated with the design. During a system test, the subject invention uses the wiring/system architecture as disclosed in the relational database together with an automatically generated test program to identify faults in a unit under test. Using the architecture knowledge, the subject invention is capable of automatically generating a wire harness schematic for printout or display on a CRT. The architecture knowledge also allows a technician to quickly distinguish between a broken wire and an unused pin in a connector. After the test, the observed values are stored in a testing results file for later review and trend analysis. Data from the trend analysis provides the technician with the data necessary to assess the state of the wiring in the UUT. At the completion of testing, the testing results file stays with the UUT thereby ensuring access to a complete testing history of the UUT at any time.