US 6,725,404 B1Granted

Evaluation of interconnect reliability using propagation delay through interconnect

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsApurba Choudhury, Thomas Wen Liang

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Abstract

An apparatus and method for reliability testing an electrical connector for an unacceptable propagation delay. The propagation delay is detected in a transmitted test signal through the electrical connector in comparison to a reference signal having a known delay. A failure signal occurs in response to the transmitted test signal failing to transition before a corresponding transition in the reference signal. The apparatus and method is extendable to a plurality of conductor paths in the electrical connector, such as a parallel communication digital data bus. Moreover, the known delay in the reference signal is selectable for adjusting an allowable propagation delay criteria for applications with different data rate requirements.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A test apparatus for testing an electrical connector, the electrical connector including a first connector contact and a second connector contact, the first connector contact being in electrical communication with the second connector contact, the test apparatus comprising:

a connector interface including a first test contact and a second test contact, the connector interface configured to electrically couple the first test contact to the first connector contact and to electrically couple the second test contact to the second connector contact;
and
a test circuit arrangement configured to determine the reliability of the electrical connector by determining propagation delay along a test signal path incorporating the electrical connector, wherein the test circuit arrangement includes:
a test signal generator operable for generating a test signal, the test signal path coupled to the test signal generator and configured to transmit the test signal through the electrical connector via the connector interface to produce a transmitted signal;
a reference signal generator operable for generating a reference signal;
and
a delay detector coupled to the test signal path and the reference signal generator, the delay detector operable for detecting a delay in the transmitted signal relative to the reference signal.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.