Patent ID: 7327148

Claim:
A method for determining electrical continuity along an electrical path between a node under test of an electrical device and an internal component node of a component mounted on the electrical device, the method comprising the steps of: positioning a sensor of a capacitive sensing probe only over the component containing the internal component node; setting a stimulus voltage to a value in a set of voltage values, the set of voltage values determined based on semiconductor junction turn-on characteristics specific to the internal component node of the component and ranging from below to above a knee of a corresponding diode curve of the internal component node; applying the stimulus voltage to the node under test of the device; obtaining a capacitively coupled signal measurement representative of the capacitance and/or current between the internal component node and the sensor of the capacitive sensing probe; repeating the setting step through the obtaining step for at least one additional stimulus voltage value in the set of voltage values, wherein at least one obtained measurement corresponds to a stimulus voltage value below the knee of the corresponding diode curve and at least one obtained measurement corresponds to a stimulus voltage value above the knee of the corresponding diode curve; determining whether a capacitance-voltage (CV) curve and/or a current-voltage (IV) curve represented by the obtained capacitively coupled signal measurements is non-flat; and if the capacitance-voltage (CV) curve and/or the current-voltage (IV) curve exhibits an increase in capacitance and/or current, indicating that the electrical continuity along the electrical path between the node under test of the electrical device and an internal component node of the component is intact, or if the capacitance-voltage (CV) curve and/or the current-voltage (IV) curve does not exhibit an increase in capacitance and/or current, indicating that the electrical continuity along the electrical path between the node under test of the electrical device and an internal component node of the component is defective.