Board Memory Test-Parameter Writing with Unified Mapping Tables

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional methods for writing test parameters into board memories in test devices require repeated combination of physical addresses with test parameters, leading to increased time consumption and hardware costs.

Innovation Solution

A method utilizing channel-pin and channel-code mapping tables to directly write test parameters into board memories, eliminating the need for multiple registers and reducing the time required for address combination.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the conventional method combines physical addresses with test parameters in multiple registers for each test board, then the test parameters can be written to board memories, but the time consumption increases and hardware costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetest parameter writing accuracyVSAvoidtime for combining addresses with parameters

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges the channel-code mapping tables of multiple test boards into a single unified mapping table. Instead of maintaining separate registers for each test board to combine physical addresses with test parameters, the invention consolidates all channel-to-code mappings into one table that can be directly written to board memories, eliminating the time-consuming address combination process while maintaining writing accuracy

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The unified channel-code mapping table serves multiple test boards simultaneously, making a single data structure universal across multiple devices. This multi-functional approach allows the same mapping table to be used for configuring different test boards with different physical addresses, eliminating the need for separate per-board register operations

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Ease of manufacture

If the conventional method allocates a register for each test board to combine physical addresses with test parameters, then the test parameters can be organized by board, but the hardware costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetest board configuration flexibilityVSAvoidnumber of registers required

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The invention uses a single unified mapping table that can be copied or referenced by multiple test boards instead of creating separate register structures for each board. This copying approach maintains the flexibility of per-board configuration while avoiding the hardware overhead of duplicate register sets

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Productivity

If the conventional method repeatedly combines physical addresses with test parameters for multiple test tasks, then all test tasks can be written to board memories, but the testing efficiency decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetesting throughputVSAvoidrepeated address combination operations

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The unified channel-code mapping table is prepared in advance to contain all channel-to-code mappings for multiple test tasks. By pre-organizing all the mapping data in a single structure before writing to board memories, the invention eliminates the need for repeated address combination operations during test task execution, thereby improving testing throughput

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The invention enables continuous writing of test parameters to multiple board memories using the unified mapping table without interruption for address combination operations. The streamlined process allows the system to continuously load test tasks onto different test boards back-to-back, maximizing productivity by eliminating idle time associated with repeated address parameter combination

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Data Source

PatentUS20250217068A1Method for writing test parameters to board memories

Publication Date: 2025.07.03 CHROMA ATE INC

AI summary

The present invention provides a method for writing test parameters into board memory, comprising: establishing a channel-pin mapping table associated with each test board, the channel-pin mapping table indicating that an i-th channel among M channels corresponds to a j-th pin among N pins of the respective test board; converting each test code transmitted by the M channels at a first time into a corresponding set of test parameters; maintaining a channel-code mapping table in a test register, the channel-code mapping table storing the set of test parameters corresponding to the i-th channel among the M channels at the first time; and writing the set of test parameters corresponding to the i-th channel at the first time into a physical address of the board memory of each corresponding test board based on the channel-pin mapping table and the stored channel-code mapping table.