SBIR-STTR Award

This proposal explores new methods that can improve the ability to accurately predict the useful life remaining for individual digital circuit boards at any particular point in time. The capability proposed herein will improve the system maintainers' ability to identify marginal circuit boards and components, and to replace them prior to their actual failure to ensure their mission is not compromised. Our approach to fulfill this opportunity encompasses new technology that will enable maintainers to visualize both electrical and physical changes within these digital circuit boards that are indicative of pending failure, long before their actual failure in the field. This approach utilizes imaging techniques that span the DC to the EHz range of the electromagnetic spectrum to provide insight into phenomena that can neither be detected nor modeled using today's conventional test program set (TPS) and automatic test equipment (ATE) technology. This technology is highly scaleable and can support extremely complex, densely populated digital circuit boards, and can easily be added to existing and newly developed TPSs and ATE to provide such capabilities in the future

This project explores new methods that can dramatically improve the ability to accurately predict the useful life remaining for individual digital printed circuit boards at any particular point in time. The proposed capability will improve the system maintainers’ ability to identify marginal circuit boards and components, and to replace them prior to actual failure in the field to prevent mission compromise. Our approach encompasses the novel use of new technology that supports sensor-fusion spanning the DC to EHz range of the electromagnetic spectrum enabling maintainers to visualize both electrical and physical changes within these digital circuit boards that are indicative of pending failure, long before their actual failure in the field. This is accomplished by providing maintainers with extremely high resolution imagery of the inner constructs of electronic printed circuit board components, solder connections and the PCB itself to visually identify marginal components, developing defects and identified/untested failures. In addition, computer algorithms also examine these images to detect the presence of prognostic indicators of future or pending failure. Such phenomena can neither be detected nor modeled using today’s conventional test program set (TPS) and automatic test equipment (ATE), however, this capability provides clear indication of events suitable for prognostic purposes.

Benefit:
This technology can provide irrefutable evidence of marginal performance and pending failure of digital circuit boards that would enable their replacement prior to mission execution. Such capability will enhance mission performance by reducing down time and increasing mission completion rates. Commercial applications include test and evalation of many commercial digital boards, as well and other electronic assemblies on the factory floor as well as at repair depots of various types.

Keywords:
ATE, diagnostic imaging, Test Program, software, Prognostics, prognostic imaging, imaging