Non-contact test system for determining whether electronic device structures contain manufacturing faults

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9372228-B2
Application number	US-201414500418-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2014
Priority date	Apr 22, 2011
Publication date	Jun 21, 2016
Grant date	Jun 21, 2016

Abstract

Electronic device structures such as structures containing antennas, connectors, welds, electronic device components, conductive housing structures, and other structures can be tested for faults using a non-contact test system. The test system may include a vector network analyzer or other test unit that generates radio-frequency tests signals in a range of frequencies. The radio-frequency test signals may be transmitted to electronic device structures under test using an antenna probe that has one or more test antennas. The antenna probe may receive corresponding radio-frequency signals. The transmitted and received radio-frequency test signals may be analyzed to determine whether the electronic device structures under test contain a fault.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for testing electronic device housing structures under test using a tester that has a test unit and an associated antenna probe, comprising:
generating radio-frequency test signals with the test unit;
wirelessly transmitting the radio-frequency test signals to the device housing structures under test using the antenna probe;
receiving corresponding radio-frequency test signals from the device housing structures under test using the antenna probe;
providing the received radio-frequency test signals to the test unit from the antenna probe; and
determining from at least the received radio-frequency test signals whether the device housing structures under test contain a fault.

2. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein the radio-frequency test signals are wirelessly transmitted by the antenna probe towards the device housing structures under test and are reflected off of the device housing structures under test and back towards the antenna probe, the received radio-frequency test signals comprise a reflected version of the wirelessly transmitted radio-frequency test signals after the wirelessly transmitted radio-frequency test signals have been reflected off of the electronic device housing structures under test, ands determining whether the device housing structures under test contain a fault comprises using the reflected version of the radio-frequency test signals to determine whether the device housing structures under test contain a fault.

3. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the antenna probe contains first and second test antennas and wherein wirelessly transmitting the radio-frequency test signals comprises wirelessly transmitting the radio-frequency test signals using the first and second test antennas.

4. The method defined in claim 3 wherein the device housing structures under test comprise a device antenna, the method further comprising placing the first and second test antennas respectively in the vicinity of the device antenna while transmitting the radio-frequency test signals.

5. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the device housing structures under test include a first connector and include a second connector coupled to an antenna resonating element and wherein determining from at least the received radio-frequency test signals whether the device housing structures under test contain a fault comprises determining whether the first and second connectors are properly connected to each other.

6. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising:
placing the device housing structures under test in a test fixture before wirelessly transmitting the radio-frequency test signals to the device structures under test using the antenna probe.

7. A method for testing electronic device housing structures under test using test equipment that includes at least one test antenna, comprising:
with the test equipment, transmitting radio-frequency test signals to the device housing structures under test using the test antenna;
receiving corresponding radio-frequency test signals reflected from the device housing structures under test using the test antenna; and
with the test equipment, determining from at least the received radio-frequency signals whether the device housing structures under test contain a fault.

8. The method defined in claim 7 further comprising:
in response to determining that the device housing structures under test contain a fault, displaying an alert on a display.

9. The method defined in claim 7 wherein receiving the corresponding radio-frequency test signals from the device housing structures under test using the test antenna comprises receiving near-field radio-frequency test signals from the device housing structures under test.

10. The method defined in claim 7 , wherein the received radio-frequency test signals comprise a reflected version of the transmitted radio-frequency test signals that is reflected off of the electronic device housing structures under test.

11. The method defined in claim 7 , further comprising determining from at least the transmitted radio-frequency test signals whether the device housing structures under test contain the fault.

12. The method defined in claim 7 , further comprising computing complex impedance data at the test equipment from the received radio-frequency signals and the transmitted radio-frequency test signals.

13. A test system for performing non-contact testing on electronic device housing structures under test, comprising:
a test unit that generates radio-frequency test signals; and
an antenna with which the radio-frequency test signals are transmitted to the electronic device housing structures under test and with which reflected signals corresponding to the transmitted radio-frequency test signals that are reflected off of the electronic device housing structures under test are received, wherein the test unit is configured to determine whether the electronic device housing structures under test include a fault based on the reflected signals.

14. The test system defined in claim 13 , wherein the test unit is configured to determine whether the electronic device housing structures under test based on the reflected signals and the transmitted radio-frequency test signals.

15. The test system defined in claim 13 , further comprising a network analyzer configured to compute complex impedance data based on the reflected signals.

16. The test system defined in claim 15 , wherein the network analyzer is configured to compute the complex impedance data based on the reflected signals and the transmitted radio-frequency test signals.

17. The test system defined in claim 13 , further comprising a moveable fixture on which the electronic device housing structures under test are placed.

18. The test system defined in claim 13 , wherein the test unit comprises a display configured to display an alert when the test unit determines that the electronic device housing structures under test contain a fault.

19. The test system defined in claim 13 , further comprising an additional antenna with which the radio-frequency test signals are transmitted to the electronic device housing structures under test.

20. The test system defined in claim 19 , wherein the additional antenna is configured to receive the reflected signals from the electronic device housing structures under test.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Nickel Joshua G
• Gavin Jonathan P G

Classifications

• G01R31/3025 Primary

  Wireless interface with the DUT · CPC title

• G01R31/265

  Contactless testing {(of circuits, also in wafer-form G01R31/302)} · CPC title