Patent ID: 7816928

Claim:
A test system to determine if a filtered feed-through assembly is of acceptable quality, wherein the filtered feed-through assembly includes one or more conductive lines and a ferrule, the test system comprising: a test fixture comprising a plurality of pins electrically connectable to a filtered feed-through assembly, wherein each pin includes a sharp distal tip, and further wherein the plurality of pins comprises at least a conductor probe pin and at least a ground probe pin, the conductor probe pin being electrically connectable to one of the one or more conductive lines and the ground probe pin being electrically connectable to the ferrule to provide a ground connection; a measurement meter electrically connectable via the conductor probe pin of the test fixture to a filtered feed-through assembly under test and electrically connectable via the ground probe pin of the test fixture to the filtered feed-through assembly under test, wherein the measurement meter is controllable to transmit signals at one or more frequencies to be applied to the filtered feed-through assembly under test and to measure one or more electrical parameters of the filtered feed-through assembly under test for use in determining at least equivalent series resistance (ESR) data and insertion loss data for the filtered feed-through assembly under test; and a control module coupled to the measurement meter to control measurement of the one or more electrical parameters of the filtered feed-through assembly under test, and further wherein the control module comprises a processor operable to execute instructions to correlate ESR data to insertion loss data for one or more filtered feed-through assemblies and to determine an ESR limit based on the correlation and a selected desired insertion loss limit, wherein the ESR limit is used to determine if a filtered feed-through assembly is of acceptable quality, wherein the sharp distal tip of at least the ground probe pin is configured to pierce an oxide layer over a ferrule of a filtered feed-through assembly under test to securely form the ground connection.