Method for testing circuit board assemblies

Abstract

An edge-testable circuit board includes a circuit board having a planar surface and a board edge. Conductive pads are formed on the board edge and are electrically coupled to test nodes of the circuit on the circuit board. The conductive pads may be located within indentations formed on the board edge. The indentations may be half-circles, half-squares or v-shaped. The conductive pads may be formed by making plated through-holes in the circuit board, electrically coupling the plated-through holes to test nodes on the circuit board, and then removing part of the plated-through holes with a router. The removal step creates a new board edge that exposes part of the plating of the through hole. Numerous such conductive pads may be formed in one step by centering the plated-through holes on a line and passing a router down the line. The circuit board may be tested by bringing it into contact with spring-loaded test probes mounted in a test fixture. Because the conductive pads are formed on the edge of the circuit board, the direction of the force applied by the spring-loaded test probes is coplanar with the plane of the circuit board substrate material, thus reducing deformation of the circuit board during testing.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.