www.xjtag.com
enquiries@xjtag.com
Three simple letters – BGA
An increasing number of devices are supplied in Ball Grid Array
(BGA) packaging. Each BGA device on a board imposes severe
restrictions on the testing that can be done using traditional
bed-of-nails or flying probe machines.
Using a simple four-pin interface, JTAG boundary scan allows
the signals on enabled devices to be controlled and monitored
without any direct physical access.
Lower test development & NRE costs
As different processors and FPGAs interact with peripherals in
different ways, traditional functional test requires costly custom
development for each board. JTAG boundary scan significantly
reduces such development costs because it provides a simplified
interface to control the I/O pins used for peripheral interactions.
This standard interface is the same for all JTAG-enabled devices,
allowing the use of a generic set of reusable test models when
building test systems.
The non-recurring engineering (NRE) expenses of building test
fixtures can be prohibitively high. In many cases, using JTAG
boundary scan will remove the need for such a fixture, in other
cases the fixture can be dramatically simplified resulting in
significant cost savings.
Shorter test times
For boards with low production volumes it has always been
difficult to justify the cost of test fixture development. Flying probe
testing can be one alternative, however, the test cycle times tend
to be high. JTAG boundary scan testing gives fast test times with
no need for a costly fixture.
Production-level benchtop tests for prototypes
Traditional test technologies require very large and expensive
equipment. The only test equipment required for JTAG boundary
scan testing is a JTAG controller – XJTAG’s XJLink2 controller is
a similar size to a PC mouse.
Excellent fault diagnostics
JTAG boundary scan, unlike
functional test, provides high
precision fault information to help
with rapid repair. XJTAG also
provides the capability to view
both the physical location of a fault
on the layout of the board and the
logical design of the area of the
circuit in which the fault exists on
the schematic.
One tool for test and programming
JTAG is often already used as one step in production: programming.
By also using JTAG for boundary scan test it is possible to
reduce the number of steps and handling operations in the
production process.
Recover boards that are ‘dead’ to functional test
XJTAG boundary scan tests can be run on any board with a
working JTAG interface. Traditional functional tests cannot be run
if the board does not boot; simple faults on key peripherals, such
as RAM or clocks, would be found using JTAG but would prevent
functional tests from providing any diagnostic information.
“XJTAG offers incredible
power, performance
and versatility...”
ARM – Andy Evans,
Sr Product Engineer, Platforms,
Development Systems
“We selected the XJTAG
system due to its price,
the speed and accuracy
of fault diagnosis...”
Curtiss-Wright – Alan McCormick,
MD, Video and Graphics Group
“XJTAG has features
that are vastly superior
to other systems
I know...”
Eaton – James Diem,
Test Engineering Manager
“XJTAG is easy to use,
highly effective and
flexible... The reuse of
tests is a big time-saver.”
Saab – Eduard Stander, Controllers
Group, Electronic Defence Systems
Seven reasons why you should use XJTAG
XJTAG-BRCR-25B-01-US
Most likely short locations
Identified short