Printed circuit board open circuit tester
OwnerDonald F. Sullivaninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Open circuits are detected in printed circuit board conductors before components are mounted by means of contacting both sides of the board with flexible conductive test patterns connected to test circuits by decreasing below atmospheric the pressure about said board. The testing is done by scanning manually isolated circuit positions on one test pattern with an LED panel to signify any broken continuity in the printed circuit board conductors. All circuit leads are tested in parallel. Short circuit tests between the conductors are also tested by the same test array by registering the test circuit pattern with one of opposite conductivity characteristics to cause a continuity when circuit pattern conductor exceeds predetermined limits or bridges the path to another conductor.
Claims17
The method of testing printed circuit assemblies before mounting of components comprising the steps of,
- 1. providing two access terminals for at least one conductor on the assembly to be tested at two spaced positions appearing on the assembly, preferably the extremity positions of all conductors,
- 2.
Testing means for a printed circuit assembly having interposed conductor circuit leads and insulator regions on at least one surface without components mounted thereon comprising in combination, means defining on said assembly a pair of access terminals on opposite ends of said conductive circuit leads, test circuit contact means including at least one adjacent flexible contact sheet having test circuit contactors positioned for registering in electrical contact with said access terminals, continuity indication means connected to said test circuit contactors to sense circuit continuity between the two said access terminals, and manually movable probe means positionable to contact electrically both access terminals of each individual conductor lead on said assembly by way of electrical contact with said test circuit contactors for each said conductor lead, thereby to indicate open circuits when continuity is broken between said access terminals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.