May 19, 2011 
EKM Elektronik GmbH & Co. KG is a German subcontractor, offering a broad range of production services to the European market with more than 90 employees including;
- Board assembly in leaded and lead-free technology;
- Repair of PCB assemblies;
- Protective coating of PCB assemblies using a range of conformal coatings
- Encapsulation of assemblies;
- Cleaning of PCB assemblies
As an existing Digitaltest customer since 2003, EKM was already using a Condor Flying Probe
System as part of their test platform, but with a sudden growth in business they encountered
a severe production problem. Volumes were increasing dramatically and test was becoming
a real bottleneck.
EKM needed to test more boards at the same time in order to ramp up volume. Digitaltest suggested they use their existing Condor's capability to accommodate a vacuum fixture to achieve the higher output they needed. This simple solution saved EKM money and brought more value to their original purchase of Condor. A Digitaltest engineer was able to design and install the vacuum fixture and the results were dramatic.
With the installation of the fixture EKM Elektronik went from testing 30 boards in 8 hours to testing 70 boards in 8 hours. The result after using the 90 pin vacuum fixture on the Condor Flying Probe is dramatic, more than double the output was achieved saving them both time and money.
Uwe Müller, EKM’s General Manager is very pleased with the Digitaltest solution:
„As a well-known subcontractor in manufacturing electronic devices and equipment we have to be able to react quickly and flexibly to all our customer demands. This effort means supplying the highest quality with high throughput and test coverage – Partnering with Digitaltest has been just the right solution for us!"
Latest developments on Condor Flying Probe Test System
The test heads of the Condor flying probe test system can land on small SMT leads of components-down to 100um. C-LINK now has an improved Flying Probe algorithm. If a pad is accessible by more than one head the new calculation in C-LINK will determine which head will guarantee the best and most reliable contact. With this new C-LINK feature it is now possible for an operator to create very robust test programs in much shorter development time.
Digitaltest’s Vacuum Fixture
Boundary Scan and Flying Prober Combination – A Powerful Test Solution
Combining the benefits of flying probe technology with Boundary Scan creates a powerful test solution. Digitaltest’s Condor flying prober permits functional tests using up to 1,012 fixed probes accessing from the bottom side. The fixed probes can access the UUT using a simple magnetic probe bed or a simple vacuum operated adaptor. Digitaltest can integrate with any Boundary Scan platform. Highlights include:
- Power On Test
- Functional Test including:
- Voltage Test
- Current Measurement
- Flash Programming
- Eprom programming
- Virtual Digital Pins
- On-Board programming
Using Boundary-Scan will now decrease test time dramatically and provide more and better test coverage of the UUT using a simple low-cost fixture.
EKM was founded in 2000 in Zwönitz, Germany and is a German subcontractor offering a broad range of production services to the European market, fast and flexibly responding to the varying requirements of their customers. They continue to invest in universally usable equipment to react to new market requirements.
Digitaltest has been developing and manufacturing Automated Test Equipment (ATE) for electronic printed circuit boards (PCB), software for production automation and quality management systems for more than 30 years.
