JPH0523627B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The present invention provides a test machine that uses a robot or the like to automatically probe and test electronic component circuits while exchanging probe bodies. To prevent tangling, a connection terminal connected to the ground wire is provided on the probe body.
By providing a contact probe that comes into contact with this terminal on the detachable holding section of the robot, the robot can be connected to the object to be measured through a ground wire wired to the robot.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a ground connection mechanism for a probe body used, for example, in testing an electronic component circuit mounted on a printed board or the like.

A printed board is a circuit module that has electronic components such as LSI, resistors, and capacitors mounted on a multilayer printed circuit board and a connector attached, and is one of the important components of electronic computers.

In order to manufacture a wide variety of printed boards with high quality and at low cost, in addition to automating assembly,
Test automation is important.

The tests include a pass/fail judgment test that determines whether a printed board is good or bad, and a failure diagnosis that points out the location of a failure in a printed board that has been determined to be defective.

In pass/fail judgment tests, it has already been achieved that the entire process from the entrance exam to stamping of the completed test can be carried out unmanned, but in fault diagnosis, only the probing work inside the printed circuit board to find the location of the failure is done manually. The current situation is that

However, due to the miniaturization of electronic components mounted on printed boards and the increasing sophistication of printed board mounting, manual probing work is no longer possible, and there is a demand for automation of the work of searching for defective locations with probes. There is.

Therefore, it has been considered to use a robot or the like to handle the probe and automatically perform the probing work.

By the way, as mentioned above, the work of searching and discovering defective locations in electronic component circuits mounted on printed circuit boards involves making measurements by bringing a probe connected to a measuring device into contact with the part to be measured; ,
All electronic component circuits mounted on a printed board are not the same, but electronic component circuits having various characteristics are mounted.

Therefore, it is not necessary to use a plurality of different measuring instruments when measuring pass/fail due to differences in the characteristics of electronic component circuits. Furthermore, since it is preferable to use a probe and a measuring device in pairs due to electrical characteristics, the same number of probes as measuring devices are required.

Therefore, when searching for a defective location on a printed board, it is necessary to replace the probe with one that is suitable for the object to be measured. Furthermore, in order to accurately transmit the waveform of the circuit under test to the measuring instrument, it is necessary to connect the ground of the probe as close as possible to the ground on the circuit under test.

[Prior art]

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining probing work performed by such a robot.

In the figure, 13 is a robot, for example 6
It is an articulated robot with many degrees of freedom, and it positions a probe attached to its tip at a desired three-dimensional position on a printed board 22, and 22 is a printed board on which electronic component circuits (not shown) are mounted. 25a, 25b, 25c are measuring instruments that are set to measure different characteristics of electronic component circuits; 50a, 50b;
50c is a probe holder that holds general-purpose probes 5a, 5b, 5c connected to measuring instruments 25a, 25b, 25c, respectively, and has a connection mechanism for connecting to the tip of the robot 13; 24 is a probe holder; This is a ground connector, to which the ground on the printed board 22 side is connected, and furthermore, the ground wires 21a, 21a, 21a, 21a, 21a, 21a, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 22b, 5c, 5c, 5b, 5c, and 5c, respectively, are grounded.
21b and 21c are connected.
Incidentally, the signal transmission cable of the general-purpose probe is connected to each measuring instrument via a fixed roller 26 and a tension roller 27.

In the configuration described above, in order to measure the characteristics of the electronic component circuit on the printed board 22, first select one of the probe holders according to the characteristics of the electronic component circuit to be measured, and connect it to the robot 13. .

Then, the probe is positioned at a desired position on the printed board 22 to measure the characteristics of the electronic component circuit.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

As is clear from FIG. 4, in order to perform measurements by replacing the probe holders 50a, 50b, 50c in sequence, a plurality of ground wires 21a, 21b, 2
There was a problem that 1c became entangled with each other, making it impossible to measure electronic component circuits, and that automation of the measurement could not be expected.

[Means for solving problems]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of a ground connection mechanism of a probe body according to the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 60 denotes a moving means for moving and positioning the probe body 61 to a position to be measured in three-dimensional space.
A suction cup 6 constituting a suction means for suctioning and holding the
4, 65, and a contact probe 66 connected to the ground and provided so as to be able to reciprocate in the direction of the probe body 61. The probe body 61 also has positioning pins 62,
63, an engaged member composed of positioning guide holes 67, 68 that engage with the suction means 64, 65;
It consists of suction surfaces 69 and 70 for suctioning the probe body, and a flat plate member 71 made of a conductive member and connected to the ground on the probe body 61 side.

In the configuration described above, the flat plate member 71 and the contact probe 66 are provided on the probe body 61 and the moving means 60, respectively, so as to come into contact with each other when the moving means 60 and the probe body 61 are connected. Therefore, when the two are connected, the ground wire on the probe body 61 side is connected to the ground.

[Effect]

As described above, since the ground wire on the probe body 61 side is connected to the ground via the moving means 60, there is no need to connect each probe body 61 to the ground on the object to be measured.

Therefore, by the moving means 60, the probe body 6
Even when measuring while replacing 1,
Since the ground wires do not get tangled, it is possible to automate the probing work.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the ground connection mechanism of the probe body according to the present invention, and FIG.
This figure is a diagram illustrating a robot probing operation using the ground connection mechanism of the probe body shown in FIG. 2. Note that the same parts in FIGS. 3 and 4 are given the same numbers, and their explanations will be omitted.

In the figure, 61 is a probe body, which is composed of a general-purpose probe 5 and a probe holder 50 for connecting and holding the general-purpose probe 5. The probe holder 50 has a frame 1 made of a flat plate. 1 is equipped with a guide hole 2,
Furthermore, an insulating holder 4 is attached to the end of the frame 1 to fix the receptacle 3a. A contact probe 3b is housed in the receptacle 3a. The contact probe 3b has a built-in spring and is preloaded so that it can reciprocate in the axial direction of the general-purpose probe 5 when in contact with the object to be measured 23. A metal fitting 9 is fixed to the other end of the insulating holder 4, and a connector 6 is attached to this metal fitting 9. The connector 6 detachably holds the general-purpose probe 5 and electrically connects the measurement pin of the general-purpose probe 5 to the receptacle 3a connected via the lead wire 7. The holder 8 is attached to the frame 1 and holds the general-purpose probe 5. Ground wire 5a of general-purpose probe 5
has a connecting portion at one end and a flat surface at the other end, and is connected to a connecting terminal 11 fixed so as to penetrate through the frame 1 via an insulator 12 .
Further, a protective cover 10 is provided on the front side of the frame 1.

A robot 13 is used to position the probe body 61 at a predetermined position on the printed board 22, and is provided with a support fitting 14.

The support fitting 14 is provided with a guide pin 15 that engages with the guide hole 2 and a suction pad 16 that suctions the plate surface of the frame 1. This suction pad is piped with a tube 17, and is connected to the joints 18a, 18.
b, and is then piped to a solenoid valve (not shown) and further to a vacuum pressure source.

In this manner, the probe body 61 and the robot 13 are coupled to each other for accurate positioning by fitting the guide pins 15 of the support fittings 14 into the guide holes 2 of the probe holder 50.

In addition, the probe holder 50 is held by vacuum suction by switching a solenoid valve (not shown) connected to the piping tube 17 to the vacuum side at a position where the suction pad 16 is in close contact with the plate surface of the frame 1 of the probe holder 50. Let's do it.

A receptacle 20a is installed through the support fitting 14 via an insulator 19, and a ground wire 21 is wired thereto. Further, this ground line 21 is connected to a ground connection mechanism 24 of a printed board 22 via an arm of the robot 13. The receptacle 20a has a built-in contact probe 20b, and this contact probe 20b has a built-in spring and is preloaded to be able to reciprocate in the axial direction of the contact probe 20b.

Therefore, when vacuum suction is performed when connecting the probe holder 50 and the robot 13, the connection terminal 11 of the probe holder 50 and the tip of the contact probe 20b of the support fitting 14 come into contact, and the ground wire 5a of the general-purpose probe 5 is printed. It is connected to the ground of the plate 22.

In this way, by simply replacing the probe holder 50, the general-purpose probe 5 of that probe holder 50 can be replaced.
The ground wire 5a of the robot 13 is automatically connected to the arm of the robot 13 and the ground connection mechanism 2 as shown in FIG.
4 and is connected to the ground of the printed circuit board 22 to be measured.

Therefore, it is not necessary to connect the ground wires of the individual probe holders 50 to the ground of the printed circuit board 22 to be measured, and the entanglement of the ground wires can be eliminated, making it possible to realize test automation.

In this example, in order to make it possible to use a general-purpose probe, a case has been described in which the general-purpose probe is accommodated and held in a probe holder. , or a robot.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, when the probe body and the robot are connected, the ground wire of the probe body and the ground wire wired to the robot side are automatically connected, so that the ground wire of each probe body There is no need to connect the ground wire to the ground side of the circuit under test, and it is possible to eliminate entanglement of the ground wire during measurement work, making it possible to realize automation of probing work.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the ground connection mechanism for a probe body according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the ground connection mechanism for a probe body according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining probing work by a robot using the ground connection mechanism of the probe body shown in FIG. In the figure, 60 is a moving means, 61 is a probe body, 62 and 63 are engaging members, 64 and 65 are adsorption means, 66 is a contact probe, 67 and 68 are engaged members, 69 and 70 are adsorption surfaces, and 71 is a flat plate member.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Engagement members 62 and 63 provided on the moving means 60 for positioning the probe body 61 at a position to be measured in three-dimensional space, and suction means 64 for suctioning and holding the probe body 61. , 65, and a contact probe 66 connected to the ground and provided so as to be reciprocally movable in the direction of the probe body 61; further, engaged members 67, 68 provided on the probe body 61; Adsorption surface 6 of adsorption means 64, 65
9, 70, and a flat plate member 71 made of a conductive member connected to the ground on the probe body 61 side. A ground connection mechanism for a probe body, characterized in that it is provided so as to come into contact with the probe body when connected to the probe body. 2 The probe body includes a measurement probe 5 and a probe holder 50 that accommodates the probe 5, and includes the engaged members 67, 68 and the suction surface 6.
9, 70, and the flat plate member 71 are provided on the probe holder 50, the probe body ground connection mechanism according to claim 1.