Durable cable guidance with up to 15g acceleration in the flying probe tester from SPEA

When errors occur in the production of printed circuit boards and microchips, they are difficult to detect but can have devastating consequences. For this reason, SPEA develops and produces automatic test systems for all areas of electronics production.

These include flying probe testers such as the SPEA 4080, which has eight needles for scanning the components. The needles touch the various test points on printed circuit boards one after the other and manage to make contact with test pads with a diameter of 50μm.

The up to 160 contacts per second are achieved by linear motors on all axes of the test system. The high dynamics required special considerations when designing the machine. As the high accelerations of up to 15g lead to high vibrations, the SPEA 4080 was equipped with a robust granite chassis.

At these speeds, however, safe guidance of the moving cables inside the system is also crucial. The energy and data cables to the test heads on the X/Y/Z axes must be guided reliably at maximum dynamics. In order to protect the sensitive electronic components from electrostatic discharges, the cable guide must also be conductive.

Finally, SPEA was also looking for linear guides for its flying probe tester that could guarantee reliable format adjustment for testing printed circuit boards of different sizes.

To guide the energy and data cables along the axes, for years SPEA has relied on E2 micro dissipative plastic energy chains. The lightweight and abrasion-resistant energy chains ensure safe operation even at high accelerations and work reliably even in the tightest installation spaces and millions of cycles. The test systems are in use for around ten to twelve years. During this period, the customer demands maximum component reliability.

As the protection of electronic components takes priority, the energy chains in the E2 micro series are made of the material igumid ESD. This material enables any electrostatic charges that arise to be dissipated immediately in a controlled manner. In contrast to applied conductive layers or volatile incorporated antistatic agents, the material additives used here result in permanent conductivity, making regular maintenance unnecessary.

SPEA also relies on linear bearing technology at various points: To enable the flying probe tester to test PCBs of different sizes, drylin SLW lead screw linear drives are used for format adjustment. The advantage: The drives work completely without external lubrication. Thanks to their dry operation, contamination of the components and the electronic components to be tested can be ruled out. The safety doors are also guided by smooth-running and quiet linear bearings. drylin ZLW toothed belt axes are used here.