TW424146B - Automatic test system with general-purpose instrument control interface - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention is about the automatic test system with general-purpose instrument control interface, in which one of the purposes is to simplify the real instrument operation for the operator and multi integrated functions of real instrument are added. The automatic test system of this invention includes the followings: a executing module; a virtual resource tool, which is processed by the executing module such that at least one application program interface is used to control one test instrument. The application program interface includes the function parameter of complex number that can be used to drive the corresponding function of complex number.

Description

424146 ^ V. Description of the invention (1) The present invention relates to an instrument control interface for grabbing general-purpose control instruments in automatic test systems. A general test instrument is usually designed for a certain test = 2 °. · Therefore, currently common testing instruments: = have some special design 'or have-some commonly used measurement functions such as electricity, ^ for a specific rate of the object to be tested' or basic functions such as temperature sensing. However, the two voltages are inconvenient. First of all, the factory method of the object to be measured has its own test object, which will produce many combinations of different functions. ‘? ： Same treatment The test function provided by the instrument is limited. When facing a single test, it is necessary to use multiple test machines to simultaneously test single-Xiao j complex phases. In addition, the testing provided by different manufacturers ‘ί may’ or even different testing instruments provided by the same manufacturer :: Π. When the user wants to operate different measuring instruments at the same time for ordering measurement, the instruments corresponding to different drivers must be used at the same time. 'This kind of incompatible operation makes the testing instruments unable to communicate with each other and their functions cannot be Use each other to reduce the availability of measuring instruments. Therefore, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide an instrument control interface for independently controlling the function of a measuring instrument in an automatic test system. d Using the interface provided by the present invention, conversion can be provided between the driver of the measuring instrument provided by the manufacturer and a Virtual Resource Tool. The one-or-multiple application program interface executed in the virtual resource tool by the "transformation database and compiling (commpi Ur) program" will correspond to the driver of a measuring instrument provided by the manufacturer. In addition,

5. Description of the invention on page 4 (2) The conversion database can also be used as a driver for the measurement instrument: type: should :: The type interface is provided by different manufacturers to avoid using the same application program interface. Incompatibility issues between drivers using different drivers have occurred. Another purpose of the mutual drive i j: is to separate the mutual measurement instruments into one of the attached persons (Yakahi τ〇01). The user can use the defined whole: measuring instrument; soyang: program interface to measure the different measurement instruments, what is the driver that does not belong, the user can single-application: the type of surface driver provided by the different manufacturers with the same Functional but incompatible driver 2 program, to achieve the integration and use of functions between instruments, and can use the same version of a variety of specific functions attached to a variety of instruments, no need to measure for testing = different specifications for specific measurements Repeatedly switch between instruments and simplify the user's operation process. In the virtual resource tool of the present invention, the application program interface plays the role of conversion of parameters and instructions between the measuring instrument user and the driver of the different instrument. A virtual resource tool can have several application program interfaces for automatic instrument measurement. The application program interface can drive one or more physical instruments to test multiple types of instrument functions. In order to make the above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention more apparent, a detailed description is given below with reference to a preferred embodiment 'and the accompanying drawings. Brief description of the figure: Figure 1 shows page 5 of the first type of interface application according to the present invention. 4 24 M6 5. Description of the invention (3) ~ '--- System architecture outline; Figure 2 shows Shown as an example of three virtual resource tools according to the present invention; Figure 3 only shows a schematic diagram of a system architecture of a second type of interface application according to the present invention; Figure 4 shows a virtual resource according to the present invention Diagram of the relationship between tools and execution modules for editing and compilation. Figures 5A and 5B show an embodiment corresponding to the system architecture shown in Figure 1 and its flowchart; and Figures 6A and 6B show an embodiment corresponding to the system architecture shown in Figure 3 and its process Illustration. Explanation of symbols: 10 ~ executing module; 12,30,20-24 ~ virtual resource tools; 14,32,34 ~ driver; 16,36,38 ~ actual instrument; ι8 ~ under test; DB1, DB2 ~ data Library; TPSE ~ Editor; TPSC ~ Compiler; S50-S59, S600_S660 ~ embodiment process steps. Embodiment: Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a system architecture of a first type of interface application according to the present invention. The execution module 10 can be a test platform or an operating system; the virtual resource tool 12 includes various independent output application program interfaces (APIs). 'This application program interface can use the corresponding The driver controls one or more functions of the actual instrument 16, and this action will be described in detail below. It ’s worth noting that ‘virtual resource tools are actually

Page 6 424146 V. Description of the invention (4) The type interface is converted correspondingly with various actual instrument driver programs 14 provided by the instrument supplier, so that the instrument operator only needs to set the same application program interface to drive Different instrument suppliers produce instruments with purposeful functions to achieve the purpose of instrument control interface. It is worth noting here that the driver of the actual instrument can also be developed by the operator for each type of use purpose. For example, the application program interface can directly call and operate the actual instrument function in a lower-level programming language. Therefore, although there are computer languages, parameter definitions, or other compatibility issues with the disparate drivers that accompany disparate instruments, test instrument operators located at the test inputs will only face the same application program interface 'and convert The corresponding operating parameters can be adjusted to test and monitor the various items to be tested. Figure 2 shows examples of three virtual resource tools 20, 22, and 24 in the present invention, which can drive AC power supply, adjust AC power supply, and AC / DC power supply. The virtual resource tool 20 includes two kinds of application program interfaces ‘reset RESEt (), supply AC power signal apply_ac_signal (), and set AC power signal SETUP_AC_SIGNAL (). The types of the above three application program interfaces are similar to functions. Among them, the function parameters to be controlled can be added according to the actual test requirements and the actual instrument driver shown in Figure 1. For example, information such as the frequency, amplitude, and phase of the AC voltage can be added to the set AC power signal SETUP_AC_SIGNAL (). Therefore, although there are different drivers and setting parameters for different instrument odors, the operator can use the same application program interface for testing at the user end. In addition, different virtual resource tools can have the same application program introduction.

424 M6. 5. Description of the invention (5) For different testing purposes, various application program interfaces can be combined into virtual resource tools according to actual needs. The virtual resource tools 20 and 24 shown in FIG. 2 are examples. The application program interface group in the virtual resource tool 24 includes the same reset RESET () as the virtual resource tool 20, and the AC power supply signal APPLY — AC — In addition to SIGNAL () and the set DC power signal SETUP—AC — SIGNAL (), there are also AC power signals APPLY_DC_SIGNAL () and the set DC power signal SETUP — DC — SIGNAL (). Therefore, the application program interface group in the virtual resource tool of the present invention can be expanded. According to the example shown in Figure 2, if the actual instrument can provide measurement functions for AC and DC signals, various types of virtual resource tools can be formed according to the needs of signal types and characteristics to achieve the purpose of driving the actual instrument. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a system architecture of a second type of interface application according to the present invention. This system can use a virtual resource tool to drive a plurality of different actual instruments. The figure shows the test operation of two different actual instruments as an example. As shown in the figure, this system includes an execution module 10, a virtual resource tool 30, driver programs 32 and 34 of the actual instrument, and actual instruments 36 and 38 corresponding to the above driver program. The conventional automatic test system can only drive and control a single actual instrument, but using a combination of various application program interfaces in the virtual resource tool of the present invention can drive multiple real instruments for different purposes to achieve the purpose of testing. For example, the actual instrument 36 may be driven to generate a DC signal, and the actual instrument 38 may be driven to generate an AC signal. Using the virtual resource tool 24 shown in FIG. 2, that is, corresponding to the driver programs 32 and 34 in FIG. 3 at the same time, the multiple application program interfaces included in it can drive the heavy load respectively.

424t46 iii V. Description of the invention (6) Functions such as setting and providing and setting AC / DC power. However, the application program interface corresponding to different actual instruments in the system architecture shown in Fig. 3 is not the same as that shown in Fig. 1. Because the actual instrument corresponding to the application program interface to be driven is not the same, various application program interfaces will correspond to different functions to drive different actual instrument drivers. However, for the operator, during the test, the operator does not need to directly face the actual instrument driver 32 and 34, or the actual instrument 36 and 38, but instead faces the virtual resource tool with functional integration. Independent instrument operation will be of great help in automatic measurement. Figure 4 shows a diagram of the relationship between editing and compiling the virtual resource tool and the execution module 10 in the embodiment of the present invention. Execution module 1 〇 When editing, 'Execution module editor TPSE will obtain the execution module data and virtual resource tool definition and function data from the databases DB1 and DB2 respectively', among which the execution module database DB1 Including the measurement purpose that the operator wants to perform, and the virtual resource tool definition and function database DB2 includes various types of virtual resource tools that can perform different test functions. This type of virtual resource tool includes the various instrument driver programs (each actual Instrument) corresponding to one or more application programming interfaces. According to this purpose, the execution module editor TPSE can search the database DB2 for the required virtual resource tools that match the definition. Then compile by the execution module compiler TPSC to execute subsequent test items. In the embodiments listed in the present invention, the execution module is edited to the virtual resource tool in the form of a database. Anyone who is familiar with this technology can also edit / compile the execution module in other ways. The computer database and other non-database editing methods replace the execution module database DB1, the editor TPSE, or the compiler TPSC.

Page 9 4 146 i | V. Description of the invention (7) Figures 5A and 5B show the _ embodiment corresponding to the system architecture shown in Figure 1. The virtual resource tool PS_AC_1 (and the virtual resource tool 12 shown in Figure 1) t includes an application program interface SETUP_AC_SIGNAL (), and the actual instrument 16 uses a power supply of ELgar number SW5250A, of which the application program interface SETUP_AC_SIGNAL () has been Complete the corresponding conversion with the driver 14 of the actual instrument provided by ELGAR. The application program interface SETUP__AC_SIGNAL () provides power signal function parameters including pulse BURST, current value range CURRENT_LIM, DC offset dc_〇FFSET, frequency FREQ, phase PHASE_ANGLE, power value range POWER-LIM, and voltage value VOLT AGE. It is worth noting that the various parameters in the application program interface can be set according to the actual application. The parameter names and specifications can be standardized 'although the actual instrument 16 may be replaced' and its driver 14 will be changed, but the operator still It can be set according to the function represented by this standardized parameter to increase the convenience of control. Fig. 5B shows the operation flow of the system architecture in Fig. 5A. The execution module 10 will send a series of Standard Control Program Interface commands. First, an AC power signal is coupled to the actual instrument (S51). Then set the waveform (S52) 'of the signal, such as a cosine waveform or a square waveform. Adjust the AC power signal frequency (S53) and set its voltage value (S54). Since the current will change with the impedance of the actual instrument at a fixed voltage value, in order to confirm that the actual instrument is operating in a safe state, the current value range (s55) generated must be regulated to prevent situations such as short circuits. In addition, the phase of the power signal will affect the result of measuring the DUT, so the phase offset must also be added in the application program interface.

Page 10 V. Description of the invention (8) To set (S56). When all the settings are completed, 'use the above parameters to drive a new AC power signal generated by the actual instrument to output and feed it into the test object (S57), wait for the test object to return the test success code and end the test (S58, 6A and 6B) Shown is an embodiment corresponding to the system architecture shown in Figure 3. In Figure 6A, the function of the virtual resource tools 3271_8902 (that is, the virtual resource tool 3 0 shown in Figure 3) is to The measurement signal measures its sensitivity in a certain frequency domain. The actual instruments 36 and 38 use the signal generator produced by RACAL number 3271 to generate the signal to be measured, and the measurement receiver number 8902A produced by HP is used to measure the signal. The signals generated above are measured for their sensitivity. The operator can set various parameters in an integrated application programming interface ME AS ~ FM —SENSITIVITY (), where the parameter types include frequency range range and return value rea ( jing, carrier frequency car_freq, carrier power car — power, and frequency mode mod_freq. In this embodiment, it is worth noting that the application program interface can call other applications according to the actual demand. Program interface or the driver of the actual instrument ^: To achieve the purpose of measurement 'Operator does not have to face the other application programs mentioned above:? Moving program ° In fact, the operator only needs to set the application program interface layer application program interface to each The actual measurement purpose corresponds to the conversion of the application program interface. As shown in Figure 6B, the control interface will sequentially call the application program interface FM when ordering the application program interface MEAS—FM_SENSITIVITY (). —SIGNAI r, 〔) and driver Measure_SINAD ()

424146 V. Description of the invention (9) ^ Test (S610 and S620). The application program interface AppLY_FM_signal generates a signal corresponding to the driving signal generator according to the parameters set by the operator to the application program interface meas_fm_sensitivity νγτγ, including the carrier frequency, carrier amplitude, and frequency mode. Next, the driver ㈠ drives the measurement receiver to measure the signal / noise and distortion of the signal. If the measured value of the signal / noise / distortion is within the expected sensitivity range, the success code is returned (S64); otherwise, adjust the parameters in the application interface APPLY_FM_SIGNAL () such as carrier amplitude, etc. Generate another signal and repeat the signal / noise distortion amount / beijing until the generated signal meets the expected sensitivity. It can be seen from the above two embodiments according to the present invention that, in the automatic test system, although each instrument under test and control has various types of driver programs, the virtual resource tools provided by the present invention and the application programs included therein are used. Interface, the operator does not need to directly face complicated and incompatible driver programs, but drives the application program interface set according to actual needs. The various types of virtual resource tools in the present invention can be used in accordance with various actual measurement purposes. Each type of application program interface will drive the purpose for which the operator may test or manipulate. A single application program interface in the virtual resource tool can correspond to a single driver / actual instrument, and can also call multiple application program interfaces or drivers written in other lower-level computer languages to control multiple actual applications in the same virtual resource tool. instrument. In addition, the parameters of the application program interface can be renamed, increased, decreased, and modified according to the actual needs of the operator. In other words, when the actual instrument is replaced, the names and functions of various driving parameters in the application program interface

4 2 4 1 4 6 J

V. Description of the invention (ίο) It is not necessary to change, only the driver program of the replaced actual instrument should be newly converted to the application program interface 'to achieve the purpose of actual driving. If this is the case, the operator only needs to select a virtual resource tool that meets the functional requirements according to the measurement purpose when performing automatic measurement of the object to be measured, and then drive the actual instrument through the setting of various functional parameters in the application program interface. In the face of each actual instrument driver program, one or more actual instruments can be driven to perform measurement tasks, increasing the control performance of the automatic test system. Although the present invention has been limited to the present invention by a preferred implementation, anyone familiar with this skill and scope can make changes and retouch the examples defined in the scope of the patent application attached below as disclosed above, but it is not intended to be used without departing from the present invention. The spirit of the invention 'is therefore the protection scope of the present invention.

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Claims (1)

Revised version- • 324 14 6. 々 索 号 88106925 6. Scope of patent application 1. An automatic test system includes: an execution module; a virtual resource tool processed by the execution module to be controlled by at least one application program interface A test instrument; wherein the application program interface includes a plurality of function parameters that can drive the corresponding plurality of functions of the actual instrument. 2. The system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the execution module is an operating system. 3. The system according to item 2 of the scope of patent application, wherein the operating system includes an editor for editing the virtual resource tool, and a compiler compiles the virtual resource tool to drive the corresponding drive of the test instrument. And other functions. 4 · The system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the test instrument has a relative driver program to drive the functions, and the function parameters of the application program interface can be converted into the driver program with multiple driving parameters to drive the corresponding ones. Such functions. 5. The system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, in which any of these application programming interfaces may be a Low Level Standard Instrument Control Interface ° 6. If the scope of patent application i In the system described in this item, the measuring instrument can be used as an analog #Analysis (Analog Stimulus). 7. According to the system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, the measuring instrument may have an analog signal measurement (Analog Measurement) function. 8. The system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, the measuring instrument has a function of RF signal stimulus (RF Stimulus). 0213-4387TW? 1HU Page 14 2000.10.25.014 2 4 j 4 π --- ~ -_lS_88106925_A month "_ΐΙ ^ ---- VI. Application for patent scope 9 The measuring instrument has the function of RF k measurement (RF Measurement). 1 〇 The system described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application, the actual measurement instrument has a digital output function. Π. According to the system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, the measured instrument can be used as a digital input (Digital Input) function. 1 2 * — An automatic test system, including: an execution module;-— a virtual resource tool that is processed by the execution module to control a corresponding plurality of test instruments by a plurality of application program interfaces; among which, among the application program interfaces, One includes plural function parameters that can drive corresponding plural functions of the corresponding actual instrument. 13. The system according to item 12 of the scope of patent application, wherein the execution module is an operating system. 1 4. The system according to item 2 of the patent application scope, wherein the operating system includes an editor for editing the virtual resource tool, and a compiler compiles the virtual resource tool to drive and drive the test instruments. Corresponding to other functions. 1 5. The system described in item 12 of the scope of patent application, where one of the test instruments has a relative driver to drive the functions, and the function parameters in one of the application program interfaces can be converted into The driver-type has a plurality of driving parameters to drive the corresponding functions. 1 6. Any one of these application program interfaces according to the system described in item 12 of the scope of patent application may be a low level standard instrument control interface (Low Level Standard Instrument Control Interface). 0213-4387Tΐ? 1 · ρΚ page 15 2000.10. 25.015 said to amend the scope of patent application 17. According to the interface described in item 丨 2 of the scope of patent application, the test instrument can be used for analog signal stimulation (Analog Stimulus). 1 8. The interface described in item 12 of the scope of the patent application, the actual measurement instrument can be used for analog signal measurement (Analog Measurement). 1 9. According to the interface described in item 2 of the scope of patent application, the measured instrument can be used for RF signal stimulation (RF Stimulus). 20. According to the interface described in item 2 of the patent application scope, the actual measuring instrument can be used for radio frequency signal measurement (RF Measurement). 2 1 · The interface described in item 丨 2 of the scope of patent application ‘The measured instrument is used for digital output. 2 2. According to the interface described in item 丨 2 of the scope of patent application, the actual measuring instrument can be used as a digital input. 2000.10. 25.016