Goepel electronic Talks Test and Inspection Innovations

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Thomas Wenzel, managing director of the Embedded JTAG Solutions Business Development at Goepel electronic, discusses the latest technology innovations happening in the test and inspection segment, and the market trends shaping them.

Stephen Las Marias: What are the greatest challenges that your customers face when it comes to test and inspection?

Thomas Wenzel: Each new generation of products increases the problem of physical test access. This has led in recent years to a strong demand for embedded validation, test, debug and programming solutions, but also for new methods of inspection. Contract manufacturers often have to cope with high requirements from their customers, and linked data management over several systems for more efficient production, which is an aspect driven by the Industry 4.0 trend.

Las Marias: How is Goepel addressing such issues?

Wenzel: In the field of automated inspection—AOI, AXI, SPI—3D is the keyword in the recent times. While three-dimensional inspection of the solder paste volume is a standard, the market shows an increasing demand for 3D AOI systems. Nevertheless, a combination of 2D and 3D together with angled-view seems to be the most versatile solution.

For electrical test, there is a continuous trend towards integrating more and more test and programming functions directly into the target and to use these embedded technologies during the entire product lifecycle.

With our new 3D·EyeZ rotatable inspection head and the innovative MultiEyeZ, we have addressed the market demands for multi-dimension inspection. 

With PILOT Supervisor, a central verification of inspection results from different AOI/AXI/SPI systems and production lines is possible—even from third-party manufacturers, which is a further step towards Industry 4.0. 

Using our new SCANFLEX II architecture, it is possible to combine all the innovative embedded system access procedures, including mixed signal tests on one hardware platform to solve the problem of lower physical test access without a compromise on test coverage.

Las Marias: On average, how long does it usually take to create a new test/inspection equipment?

Wenzel: Goepel’s development philosophy is based on modular designs. This enables a high degree of flexibility to adapt a solution on new requirements or to improve certain performance criteria. In this respect, we are talking about typical development times in the range between three to six months. The development cycle for a complete new equipment generation need in average of one to two years, depending on the product application. Our ISO 9001-certified development flow helps us to cope with the challenge to synchronize the many different design disciplines covering optics, mechanics, electronics, software and haptics. Concurrent engineering is another very important part of this strategy.      

Las Marias: What market development trends are shaping product innovation strategies at Goepel?

Wenzel: On the one hand, there are many challenging product developments from our customers that we need to support with our solutions. Market trends include IoT, 5G, smart devices, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in the automotive industry, just to name a few. Delivering to our customers exactly the equipment they need to stay competitive is our first priority.

On the other hand, we are implementing newest technologies like cloud services, software defined instrumentation, mixed signal tester on chip (ToC), all programmable SoC solutions, and adapted optics in our products to stay ahead in the frame of Industry 4.0.

To read this entire article, which appeared in the February 2017 issue of SMT Magazine, click here.