Sustainment Challenges and Approaches for Legacy ATE Systems

Lifecycle management is the bane of existence for many test engineers. Opportunities to transition to that next new exciting project can be hampered by the need to keep deployed automatic test equipment (ATE) operational, especially as these systems continue to be pushed beyond their initial life projections. It is fair to assume that as the service life of these systems continues to be extended, hardware components will fail and replacement instrumentation and switching alternatives will not be readily available. This is further exacerbated by the lack of available legacy support from most OEM suppliers, compelling users to consider alternate approaches. A number of alternatives exist to address hardware replacement, but each can pose implementation challenges and drawbacks that must be considered. Inherent in any sustainment decision is the risk that unforeseen changes will occur that invalidate the current solution and impact previously qualified Test Program Sets (TPSs). Something as seemingly innocuous as substituting an instrument or switch card with an “exact” form, fit, function (FFF) replacement may require significantly more integration time than expected due to minor differences in hardware and software timing and execution speeds, settling times and propagation delays, or driver implementation and instrument setup/execution speed increases or delays, just to name a few. The economics of these sustainment activities must also be considered and weighed against the projected future loading requirements for the affected ATE system. For example, when does it make sense to simply procure last time buy quantities versus engaging in engineering activities to implement an alternate solution? This paper will delve into these and other sustainment challenges test engineers face when tasked with keeping legacy ATE operational. The discussion will include alternate approaches such as FFF drop in replacements, FPGA based equivalent instrumentation, architecture and software considerations, the impact these changes can have on existing TPSs, as well as the potential budget impact for the various approaches.