Boundary Scan for Enhanced Diagnostics

To address the Navy"s need for enhanced weapons replaceable assembly (WRA) diagnostics at the Organizational maintenance level, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to continue to develop a novel hardware/software system, Boundary Scan Enhanced Diagnostics (BSED). This proposed ruggedized system will utilize a combination of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and novel POC technologies to harness boundary scan techniques to existing functional built-in test (BIT) for vastly improved avionics system diagnostics to reduce WRA failure ambiguity to near 0%. The innovation in BSED is the system"s ability to use Joint Test Action Group (JTAG)-based boundary testing to collect information about physical faults at the component and trace levels for application to a system-level diagnostic function, thus increasing the likelihood of isolating a failed WRA beyond the point that traditional functional BIT can reach. In Phase I, POC investigated the electronic systems in use by the Navy and confirmed the feasibility of BSED by demonstrating a prototype BSED system to Navy officials. In Phase II, POC plans to design a ruggedized BSED system, build and demonstrate a fully functional advanced prototype system, including a portable boundary scan controller device and associated cabling for a target Navy system.