The Effectiveness of Test in Controlling Quality Costs: A Conformability Analysis Based Approach

Test and inspection are an increasingly costly element of electronic system design and manufacture and so it is critical that the cost effectiveness of test and inspection are well understood. This paper presents techniques which may be used to assess test capability and hence the implied test quality costs of PCB level electronic circuits. The techniques presented are based on the electronic Conformability Analysis (eCA) approach which combines process capability indices and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis with a cost mapping procedure. It introduces a new measure of test capability based on the widely used process capability measure C _pk. This analysis allows the quality costs associated with design and manufacture induced faults to be estimated and the effectiveness of test strategies in reducing these costs to be determined. It allows the trade-off between quality costs and the component, manufacturing process and test costs to be explored. The technique has been applied to analogue & mixed signal, safety critical circuits from automotive systems.