Contact mechanism cleaning

A functional test system comprising:

• a contact mechanism configured to deliver stimuli to and obtain responses from a plurality of devices-under-test (DUTs), the contact mechanism comprising a plurality of electrical contacts, the responses being determinative of one of acceptance and failure for each of the plurality of DUTs;
• a contact resistance (CRES) tester configured to measure CRES associated with at least one of the plurality of electrical contacts of the contact mechanism and to generate a statistical data set based on the measured CRES and at least one of the plurality of DUTs;
• and
• a data analysis system configured to generate and/or apply at least one CRES threshold parameter for the contact mechanism, the at least one CRES threshold parameter being determinative of when to clean the contact mechanism based on at least one CRES statistic in the statistical data set.

A functional test system comprising:

• means for providing stimuli to and obtaining responses from a plurality of devices-under-test (DUTs), the responses being determinative of one of acceptance and failure for each of the plurality of DUTs;
• means for measuring a contact resistance (CRES) associated with the means for obtaining the responses based on the responses;
• means for generating a statistical data set based on the CRES associated with the means for obtaining the responses;
• and
• means for cleaning the means for obtaining the responses based on the statistical data set and at least one CRES threshold parameter.