Datest, ASTER Technologies Form Technical Partnership

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Datest, a leading provider of advanced, efficient and mission-critical in-circuit testing, test engineering and X-ray inspection solutions, is pleased to announce a new technical partnership with ASTER Technologies, based in Cesson-Sevigne, France. ASTER Technologies is the leading supplier of board-level testability and test coverage analysis tools.

Under the agreement, Datest will help ASTER to expand its market penetration in the Western United States. Datest will provide technical support to improve the software and perform services, providing analysis on a project-by-project basis. Additionally, Datest will demo the software for those customers interested in acquiring the software suite.

TestWay™ is the industry leading software solution providing a unique approach to analyze Design-for-Test (DfT) requirements and test coverage at board and system level. Use of the digital twin enables users to define the manufacturing line, including a combination of inspection and test equipment, allowing test coverage estimation to be carried out for each individual test stage and the consolidated coverage for the complete production line. By simulating various test strategies, customers can leverage the benefits of each machine to reduce coverage gaps, while eliminating redundancies (lean program generation) between platforms. The simulation results are then used to automate the assembly, test and inspection program generation for assembly machines, Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), Automated X-ray Inspection (AXI), in-circuit test (ICT), flying-probe test (FPT) and Boundary-Scan test (BST).

“We are pleased to be partnering with ASTER, to assist them in building technical awareness and market share in the Western US,” said Robert Boguski, President of Datest.  “We have long admired ASTER and the TestWay™ suite from afar, and we’re thrilled to now be working in the trenches with engineers to help evangelize and raise hands-on product awareness on ASTER’s behalf.  Right now, outside of Tier 1 EMS companies, TestWay™ remains a well-kept secret among board design and process engineers.  We aim to help change that perception.”

TestWay™ also allows measurement of the real test coverage for each test and inspection machine of the test line. As a result, it is possible to make a comparison between the estimated and real test coverage to ensure the optimal test strategy is implemented on the shop floor.

Will Webb, Technical Director of ASTER Technologies in the USA says, “We at ASTER are excited about the new partnership with Datest.  Having a physical presence on the West Coast, Datest will be very beneficial to ASTER and helpful for demonstrations of the software.  Datest will continue to be a great asset to us because of their access to actual test machines on their floor, which will help develop and refine the ASTER output processing/CAD2CAM capabilities.”