Apparatus for automated testing of surface mounted components

Abstract: The tester comprises jaws for orienting the component about a longitudinal axis of the tester in order to ensure proper positioning of the electrical connectors for engage­ ment by test contacts of the tester. Each component usually has a mounting surface for engaging a dot of glue by which the component is held to the circuit board, and the tester provides means for generally preventing tilting of this mounting surface relative to longitudinal axis of the tester during testing.

Description: The invention is directed to an apparatus for testing electrical functioning of an electrical component, particularly in preparation for mounting of the component to a printed circuit board (PCB) by insertion or onsertion in an automated process. Insertion, as the name implies, generally involves inserting the leads of a component through the holes of the circuit board and clinching protruding portions of the inserted leads to the underside of the board so as to hold the component in preparation for subsequent soldering of the leads to electrical tracks of the board. Onsertion generally involves surface mounting of miniature components, without the need for lead receiving holes at the mounting locations of the circuit board, as by using a dot of glue to hold the component in preparation for subsequent soldering of electrical connectors of the component to the electrical tracks. The thickness of these surface mounted components generally range from 0.45- 1.6 mm (0.018-0.062 inches), with width and length dimensions perpendicular to the thickness generally ranging from 1.0 - 6.3 mm (0.04 - 0.25 inches). The electrical connectors of onserted components may comprise conductive pads which are generally flush with the component body, hemispherical conductive balls, and/or conductive leads protruding from the body. The tips of the protruding conductive leads may extend past or be generally flush with the component body "mounting surface" which generally is parallel to the circuit board top surface when mounted. Since the glue used to hold the onserted component in place does not "set-up" right away, components with lead tips extending past the mounting surface were being propelled free of the unset glue by the spring force stored in the leads during placement of the component onto the dot of glue. Hence, the leads of some components have been shortened so that the tips of the leads are generally coplanar with the mounting surface of the component, thus eliminating such "popping" of the components from the circuit board. Prior attempts to test such surface mounted components automatedly have provided devices which have been unable to reliably handle all of the above-noted electrical connectors. One such prior art device could handle only leadless (conductive pad) components. With another prior art device, components having lead tips generally coplanar with the mounting surface of the component would need to be pressed so firmly onto test contacts that the component would be damaged and/or lateral positioning of the leads relative to the testing contacts would be lost, resulting in unreliable testing. European Publication No. 0065604 describes a machine for placing chips onto a printed circuit board. A pair of pivotal arms centres the device in one direction whilst the sloping surfaces centre the device in an orthogonal direction. This may lead to damage to the component if its edges are dragged along the sloping walls. European Publication No. 0092274 describes a device for handling electrical components, which has two pairs of arms which close towards the edges of the component. This device could also lead to damage of the component. The invention is a tester according to claim 1. Suitably, the arrangement of the tester is such whereby the electrical connectors are elements of a set comprising conductive pads which are generally flush with the component body surface, conductive pads which are slightly out of flush with the component body surface, and electrically conductive leads protruding from at least one surface of a component body so as to provide lead tips generally coplanar with and spaced from another surface of the body. The tester comprises jaws for orienting the component about a longitudinal axis of the tester in order to ensure proper positioning of the electrical connectors for engagement by test contacts of the tester. Each component preferably has a mounting surface engagable with a dot of glue to hold the component on the circuit board, and the tester suitably provides means for generally preventing tilting of this mounting surface relative to the tester longitudinal axis. Such a tester provides reliable, repeatable testing of electrical functioning of surface mounted electrical components having various electrical connector configurations and which particularly may be part of an automated processing line. The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front view of a tester in accordance with the invention, Figure 2 is a left side view of the tester of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of the tester of Figure 1, as taken along arrows A-A of Figure 2, Figure 4 is an enlarged view, partially in section, of a plunger-type electrical contact utilised in the tester of Figure 1, Figure 5 is a top plan view of the tester of Figure 3, and Figure 6 is a view illustrating various electrical components which may be tested by a tester in accordance with the invention. Referring to the drawings, a tester is shown which comprises a body 52 to which a pair of squaring arms 26 are pivotally connected for rotation by the pins 27, and test arms 12 are pivotally connected for rotation around pins 14. Centrally located relative to arms 12 and 26 and longitudinal axis 15 of the device is a component engaging platform 38. Platform 38 is telescopic within a guide tube 44, with the limits of such telescoping being defined by pin 46 and slot 42, as seen in Figure 3. Platform 38 is biased to the upward position of Figure 3 by compression spring 40 being sandwiched between the lower end of platform 38 and a plug 48 fitted into guide tube 44. A generally cylindrical member 54 has camming surfaces on the top portion thereof and is telescopic over the outside surface of guide tube 44 according to actuation of a cylinder 57. The upper and lower limits of movement of cam 54 are defined by a slot 50 of guide tube 44 and a pin 56 reciprocatable within slot 50 by attachment to a driving rod 58. Driving rod 58, in turn, is connected to a piston 55 of cylinder 57 at clevis 53 by a pin, an outer end of which extends through a slot in body 52 of the tester and supports the magnet of a Hall effect position sensor. Squaring arms 26 have camming surfaces 32, and test arms 12 have cam surfaces 24, with the positioning of cam surfaces 24 and 32 being axially spaced along longitudinal axis 14 in order that squaring arms 26 close upon a component 2 prior to engagement of the electrical connectors thereof by test contacts 16, 18 of the test arms 12. As may be appreciated from the figures, cam 54 provides for positive control of opening of the squaring and testing arms, with springs 22 and 30 biasing arms 12, and 26, respectively, to the closed position relative to longitudinal axis 15. Squaring arms 26 are provided with electrically insulative squaring inserts 28 in order to prevent short circuiting between leads of the components, whereas test arms 12 are provided with electrically conductive test probes 16 and 18. At least one of the opposed test arms 12 has a blade-type electrical contact 16 and the other test arm 12 has at least two spring biased, plunger-type contacts of the type illustrated in Figure 4. Alternatively, one or both arms may have a blade type test probe 16 which is flanked on each side by a spring biased, plunger-type probe 18. Each arm 12 has a blade-type test contact 16 so that components such as resistors and capacitors which have electrical connectors on opposite ends of the component may be tested via the blade-type contacts 16. In order to test small outline transistor (SOT) components having two electrial connectors on one side of the device and one connector on the other side of the device which is offset between the first two electrical connectors, two of the plunger-type contacts 18 (of Figure 4) are provided on on of the arms 12. Of course, both test arms 12 way have the full compliment of test contacts 16 and 18 in order that components which are 180° out of orientation around axis 14 may also be tested. Gears 34 are attached to their corresponding squaring arms 26 by pins 27 in order to rotate therewith, with gears 34 meshing so that arms 26 open and close in concert to centre the component along the line of closing of arms 26. As seen in Figure 2, spring 36 is attached to gear 34 in order to take the backlash out of a sloppy gear engagement and account for any tolerance in the holes by which gears 34 are mounted on pins 27. Springs 22 on test fingers 12 are sufficiently heavier than springs 30 on squaring arms 26 for the purpose of overcoming the spring load of the plunger-type electrical contacts mounted thereon. Of course, various combinations of the contacts 16, 18 are activated according to the components being tested. Test arms 12, unlike squaring arms 26, are allowed to somewhat "float" relative to axis 14 so that, if a component is not exactly along their line of closing, engagement of a component by one arm 12 does not prevent engagement by the other arm 12. Component bodies sometimes have burs which can cause the component to "hang-up" on a squarer face 28 so that positive engagement between arms 12, as with gears 34 of arms 26, would prevent proper engagement with both arms 12 when one of the arms 12 engaged a component off-centre along their line of closing. Such burs also could groove the insulated surfaces 38 of squaring arms 26 if test arms 12 were allowed to exactly centre the component upon axis 14. Grooving of squaring arm 26, consequently, could prevent proper centering of the component along the line of closing of arms 26 so that the electrical connectors of some surface mounted components would not be properly contacted by the test probes 16 and 18 upon closing of test arms 12. Floating of arms 12 negates both of these problems. In operation, test arms 12 and squaring arms 26 are opened by cam 54 during extension of piston 55 by cylinder 57, and a component such as illustrated in Figure 6 engages platform 38 and depresses platform 38 against the bias of spring 40 to a depth generally equal to the thickness of the component. At this time, cylinder 57 is fired to retract piston rod 55 thus allowing closing of squaring arms 26 and test arms 12, in that order. Electrical function testing of the device is carried out at this time according to connection of contacts 16 and 18 to a programmable test circuit via electrical leads (not shown). After testing of the component, arms 12 and 26 are again opened by cam 56 for removal of the component and subsequent handling thereof according to the results of the test. It was discovered that components would become tilted relative to longitudinal axis 14 without provision of the spring bias platform 38, thus resulting in an improper test. By incorporation of platform 38 into the device, such tilting has been obviated.

Claims: A tester for testing the electrical functioning of surface-mount type electrical components each having electrically conductive connectors prior to mounting the components on a circuit board, the tester including means for orienting a component about and transverse to a longitudinal axis and means for engaging the electrical connectors in order to test the electrical functioning of the component, the orienting means comprising a pair of arms closable upon the component, characterised in that the engaging means comprises a second pair of arms (12) closable upon the component after the first pair of arms (26) and having electrical test probes (16, 18) for conductively engaging the electrical connectors of the component in order to test electrical functioning of the component, the second pair of arms (12) being closable by spring means (22), each arm being adapted to float independently of the other arm, the second pair of arms (12) engaging the connectors even when the component is displaced off-centre along the line of closing of the second pair of arms, but not being adapted to orientate the component about or transverse to the longitudinal axis, the engaging means (12) being operatively associated with the orienting arms (26), and in that means are provided to actuate the orienting arms (26) and the engaging means (12). A tester as claimed in Claim 1, characterised in that a spring loaded platform (38) is provided for engaging the component during reception thereof by the tester and preventing tilting of the component relative to the longitudinal axis, in order that the electrical connectors are properly positioned to be engaged by the engaging means (12).

Inventors: OVERBY PAUL M, ROHDE ROBERT R, WEIBLEY J DEAN, OVERBY, PAUL M., ROHDE, ROBERT R., WEIBLEY, J. DEAN
Applicants: UNIVERSAL INSTRUMENTS CORP, UNIVERSAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION (DELAWARE CORP.)
Application year: 1986
Main classification: G01R1
IPC codes: G01R1, G01R31, H05K13