Functional Test at a glance
| Set Up Costs | Normally one of the lowest as it tends to be your equipment made into a rig. |
| Speed | OK to Poor test speed. Many minutes normally. |
| Coverage | Excellent. Depends on how much you specify. |
| Operator Level Required | OK. Technical knowledge is normally needed. |
| Fault Finding | Poor. By far the biggest weakness. Most functional testing gives a pass or fail result with no help offered for fault finding. |
| Running Cost | Low cost of ownership, but a high cost due to operator level and fault finding issues. |
Overview
Functional Test is often needed as a proof that the assembly or unit conforms to specification. However, as a production test tool it is poor. Cheap to set up, but costly to operate due to test times and fault finding. Test rigs are often not fit for purpose, break down often and can’t cope when a faulty assembly is plugged in.
Ideally functional test should be part of a test strategy and the last phase of the production line i.e. Other forms of PCBA testing should be used initially to ensure boards are free of assembly errors and then tested functionally as a unit to ensure the item meets specification.
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