Itochu Europe - Flying Probe Testers - EC Electronics selects Itochu’s test services to help develop groundbreaking in-flight medical facilities.

May 2006 | posted by D Claxton

Launched last year at Nepcon, the Takaya APT 9411 system series continues to be a hit with EMS and CEM companies. One recent installation, for CTS Electronics Manufacturing Solutions (EMS) in Scotland (a global EMS provider and part of the CTS Corporation) demonstrates the APT-9411’s speed, accuracy and flexibility in product development scenarios.

With its headquarters in Moorpark, California, CTS EMS supports customers with full turnkey manufacturing and support services, including backplanes, printed circuit board assemblies and system integration, plus test engineering, supply chain management and global logistics. The EMS group operates eight locations in North America, Europe and Asia and focuses on a small number of core strategic markets: medical, defence, aerospace, industrial equipment, networking communications, wireless infrastructure and data storage. With published 2005 revenues of more than $360million, CTS EMS is one of the largest tier two EMS Providers in the world and top-20 overall.

CTS EMS has long been established in the UK. Originally operating as Fabritek, building core memory modules for the defence industry, CTS has been operating in Scotland since 1966. CTS Corporation acquired Fabritek in the early 1980s and as market requirements changed, the company entered the back plane sector in the late 1980s, and the business model continued to evolve to the full range of turnkey EMS services that are provided today. In 2005, CTS acquired niche EMS provider SMTEK International, providing additional capabilities in medical and defence sectors. The business employs over 200 people in the UK and approximately 1,500 worldwide.

CTS’ test engineering manager said: “The Takaya Apt-9411 flying probe system from Itochu provides CTS with the latest flying probe technology in the market. The system enhances the current CTS test strategy and capability providing the flexibility to meet customer demands. The Takaya APT 9411 provides CTS UK with a compatible system which is operated through-out the CTS EMS facilities.”

The company’s global director of quality and engineering, Jim McNeil, added: "The ability to support quick-turn prototyping is core to CTS' business. The importance of reducing customer lead-times and improving time-to-market is a key differentiation for an EMS Provider. The APT-9411 Flying Probe Test from Takaya, with its greater levels of speed and accuracy, underpins CTS' commitment to providing the highest levels of service to customers from the very earliest stages of product development."

Itochu’s business manager for the Takaya range, Graham South, said: “The development of the APT 9411 has certainly given us an edge both technically and commercially. The combination of enhanced speed and accuracy and greater flexibility in terms of optional upgrades and the ability of the APT 9411 to be used as either a stand-alone or in-line system has been well received in the market-place.”

With improved performance in both speed and accuracy, the APT-9411 exemplifies the continuing programme of technical development at Itochu. Positioning resolution on the X & Y axes has been enhanced from 2.5gm to an even more precise 1.25gm allowing the testing of increasingly smaller components on more densely packed boards. There are two IC opens on the top-side plus two IC opens in the bottom-side kit. For faster visual inspection, a second camera can be mounted on top and, with the addition of the optional bottom-side kit, a third camera can be mounted below.

Featuring up to four probes on the top-side, the APT-9411 also comes with two probes on the bottom-side, providing up to six probes. Such development makes the test cycle faster, improves test coverage and provides proofing against future test requirements. An increased fly height of 40mm, from 35mm previously, permits the testing of an even greater variety of boards. A further feature of the Takaya system is the ability to connect to boundary scan, important when testing boards incorporating grid array packages such as BGA, micro-BGA, chip scale packages and direct chip attach components, as well as to extra power supplies and instruments for digital or limited functional testing.