Tracking Current Flow Through Units Under Test (UUT)

Automatic test equipment typically uses voltage measurements to identify failures in electronic equipment. In practice electrical current (EC) measurements are very seldom performed due to the intrusive aspect of the EC measurement. This Phase II effortprovides a significant opportunity to develop a process to capture EC measurements as well as methods to extract and display steady state and transient EC information. Steady state information indicates the static performance of a circuit. Analysis of thetransient portion of the EC measurement introduces new valuable information regarding the reactive or dynamic performance of the circuit. Reactive components can then be diagnosed by their dynamic performance. The capability of simultaneously measuring thecomplex voltage and EC provides new and valuable insight into the impedance. This newly available information will be input to Neural Networks for both training and analysis of failure ambiguities. The prototype will introduce innovative capabilities fortest equipment technicians, and test software engineers. This effort will demonstrate the use of EC data and information to support fault diagnostic procedures in Ogden depot for the F-16 and other weapon systems. It should be extendable to other militaryand commercial aeronautical, automotive, medical, and industrial applications.