Patent ID: 8446152

Claim:
An apparatus that assists a test of wiring patterns that are formed on a printed circuit board, the apparatus comprising: a first database that stores attribute information and position information that indicate attributes and positions of the wiring patterns in a manner in which the attribute information and the position information are associated with the wiring patterns; a second database that stores position information and size information that indicate positions and sizes of pattern removed areas that exist in solid patterns provided in the printed circuit board; a third database that stores degradation degree information that indicates degradation degrees in signal characteristics in the wiring patterns with respect to positional relationships between the wiring patterns and the pattern removed areas, and sizes of the pattern removed areas; an input unit that has attribute information of a wiring pattern input thereto; a degradation degree process unit that obtains a degradation degree in the signal characteristics in the wiring pattern corresponding to the attribute information that is input to the input unit, based on the position information of the wiring pattern corresponding to the attribute information input to the input unit, position information and size information of the pattern removed area, and the degradation degree information; and a first extracting unit that extracts, for an actual measurement test, the wiring pattern that has the degradation degree equal to or more than a predetermined degree, from the wiring patterns for which degradation degrees have been obtained by the degradation degree process unit, wherein the degradation degree process unit divides the pattern removed areas in predetermined area units in order to obtain the degradation degree in signal characteristics of the wiring pattern for each of the predetermined area units of the pattern removed areas, and wherein each of the predetermined area units has a side that is determined based on a fall or rise time of a signal transmitted through the wiring pattern and a propagation velocity of the signal in the wiring pattern.