Tutorial: Importing Test Limits from a File

Complete the following steps to open an existing sequence file and create a test limits file for importing modified test limits.

  1. Open <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\Importing Limits.seq. This sequence file contains a sequence with Semiconductor Multi Test steps for continuity, leakage, and functional tests. Each step has been configured with test limits. Select each step and review the tests configured on the Tests tab in the Step Settings pane.
  2. Complete the following steps to export the current test limits from the sequence file to a test limits file.
    1. Select Semiconductor Module » Export Test Limits from Importing Limits.seq or click the Export Test Limits from Importing Limits.seq button on the TSM toolbar.
    2. Save the file as <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\LabVIEW\ProductionLimits.txt.
    3. Click OK in the Export Complete dialog box to acknowledge that the export succeeded.
  3. Complete the following steps to create a new test limits file with stricter limits.
    1. Open <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\LabVIEW\ProductionLimits.txt in a text editor or in Microsoft Excel.
    2. Locate the columns for LowLimitExpression and HighLimitExpression and make the changes to each test as shown in the following table.
      Note The test limits file uses a tab-delimited file format, and columns might not be aligned in some text editors. Count the number of tabs in a row to match the values in a column to the column header.
      Step Name LowLimit Expression Value HighLimit Expression Value
      Continuity Test 6 9
      Leakage Test 35 90
    3. Save the file as <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\QALimits.txt.
  4. Complete the following steps to import limits from the QALimits.txt test limits file.
    1. In the TestStand Sequence Editor, select Semiconductor Module » Import Test Limits into Importing Limits.seq or click the Import Test Limits into Importing Limits.seq button on the TSM toolbar.
    2. Select the <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\LabVIEW\QALimits.txt file and click Open.
    3. Click OK in the Import Test Limits into Sequence File dialog box.
    4. Click OK in the Import Complete dialog box.
    5. Select the Continuity and Leakage Test steps and review the test limits on the Tests tab of the Step Settings pane. The values in the Low Limit and High Limit columns are now updated to the values from the QALimits.txt test limits file.
  5. Complete the following steps to remove information from the QALimits.txt test limits file that the Import/Export Test Limits tool does not update to simplify the test limits file.
    1. Open <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\QALimits.txt in a text editor or in Microsoft Excel.
    2. Delete the <SequenceName>, <StepName>, <StepId>, and <TestName> columns because the <TestNumber> column uniquely identifies each test.
    3. Delete the <Pin>, <ComparisonType>, <ScalingFactor>, <Units>, <EvalutationType>, and <FailBin> columns because you will not be modifying those values in this tutorial.
    4. Save the QALimits.txt file and import the test limits using the same procedure as in Step 4.
    5. Select the Continuity and Leakage Test steps and review the test limits on the Tests tab of the Step Settings pane. The limits remain the same even though the Import/Export Test Limits tool removed columns from the test limits file.
    6. Click the Undo button or press <Ctrl-Z> to undo the changes that importing the limits file made.
  6. Complete the following steps to update only specific test steps.
    1. Open <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\LabVIEW\QALimits.txt in a text editor or in Microsoft Excel.
    2. Delete the rows in the limits file for the Leakage tests that use 0V. These tests have test numbers 201, 203, 205, and 207.
    3. Save the QALimits.txt file and import the test limits using the same procedure as in Step 4. In Step 4.c, the Import Tests Limits into Sequence File dialog box enables the Update limits in matching tests option by default. This setting specifies to import only the limits to tests that have matching rows in the test limits file. A row matches a test if the row and test use the same identifier columns: <SequenceName>, <StepName>, <StepId>, <TestName>, and <TestNumber>. If any of the identifier columns are missing, the row might match multiple tests in the sequence file.
      Note The Import Complete dialog box warns you that some of the tests in the sequence file were not found in the test limits file. You can ignore this warning because you intentionally removed those tests from the test limits file so that the Import/Export Test Limits tool would not update them.
    4. Select the Leakage Test step and review the test limits on the Tests tab of the Step Settings pane. The values of the Low and High Limits are now updated to the values from the QALimits.txt test limits file for the 5V leakage tests but not for the 0V leakage tests.
    5. Click the Undo button or press <Ctrl-Z> to undo the changes that importing the limits file made.
  7. Complete the following steps to delete the existing tests in the sequence file and replace them with the tests from the test limits file.
    1. Open <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\LabVIEW\ProductionLimits.txt in a text editor or in Microsoft Excel.
    2. This tutorial uses the Replace all tests in matching steps import mode. Because this mode requires more information in the test limits file to identify which step the tests limits belong to, delete only the <StepId> column. Do not delete any other columns because the Replace all tests in matching steps mode leaves values for test settings columns as the default value if the test limits file does not specify a value.
    3. Delete the rows in the test limits file for tests 101, 102, 103, and 104.
    4. Update the values for the <LowLimitExpression> and <HighLimitExpression> columns for test 100 to 6 and 9, respectively.
    5. Save the changes to the test limits file.
    6. Select Semiconductor Module » Import Test Limits into Importing Limits.seq or click the Import Test Limits into Importing Limits.seq button on the TSM toolbar to launch the Import Test Limits dialog box.
    7. Select the <TestStand Public>\Tutorial\NI_SemiconductorModule\Importing Test Limits\LabVIEW\ProductionLimits.txt file and click Open.
    8. In the Import Test Limits into Sequence File dialog box, enable the Replace all tests in matching steps option.
    9. Click OK in the Import Test Limits into Sequence File dialog box.
    10. Click OK in the Import Complete dialog box.
    11. Select the Continuity Test and review the test limits on Tests tab of the Step Settings pane. The tests are now updated to match the tests from the limits file, and the Continuity Test contains only test 100.
    12. Click the Undo button or press <Ctrl-Z> to undo the changes that importing the limits file made.
  8. Complete the following steps to create a test program configuration that loads the limits file when the test program begins execution.
    1. In the TestStand Sequence Editor, select Semiconductor Module » Edit Test Program: Importing Limits.seq or click the Edit Test Program: Importing Limits.seq button on the TSM toolbar.
    2. On the Test Limits Files panel, click the Add Test Limits File button to add a new file reference to the test program.
    3. Enter Production Limits as the name to identify the new limits file in the test program.
    4. Enter ProductionLimits.txt in the Test Limits File Path control. The filename you enter is a relative path from the sequence file to the test limits file, ProductionLimits.txt, which is located in the same directory as the sequence file.
    5. Select the Production panel to edit the Production configuration. Select Production Limits in the Test Limits File control to configure the Production configuration to load the test limits file when the lot begins execution.
    6. Click OK to close the Test Program Editor.
    7. Select Configure » Result Processing to launch the Result Processing dialog box.
    8. Enable the Debug Test Results Log result processing plug-in and select it as the Display report. Disable all other report types.
    9. Click OK to close the Result Processing dialog box.
    10. Select Semiconductor Module » Configure Lot or click the Configure Lot button on the TSM toolbar to launch the Configure Lot Settings dialog box.
    11. Select Production for the Test Program Configuration.
    12. Click OK to exit the Configure Lot Settings dialog box.
    13. Click the Start Lot button on the TSM toolbar to execute the test program. TestStand generates and displays a report on the Report pane of the Execution window.
    14. Review the Debug Test Results Log and review the limits of each test. The Production configuration overrides the test limits the sequence specifies. The ProductionLimits.txt test limits file provides the test limits values to use for each test instead of the values entered in the Semiconductor Multi Test step.
  9. Complete the following steps to import the same tests to multiple steps.
    1. Add an If step below the Get Current Level step in the MainSequence sequence.
    2. Set the Conditional Expression of the If step to Locals.LowCurrent, a local variable that stores the value of the LowCurrent test condition obtained from the current configuration in the Get Current Level step. This value is True for the Production configuration.
    3. Add an Else step between the If and End steps.
    4. Move the Continuity Test step between the If and Else steps.
    5. Create a copy of the Continuity Test step and place it between the Else and End steps. Rename the original version of the Continuity Test step between the If and Else steps to Low Current Continuity Test.
    6. In the Low Current Continuity Test step, set the Low Limits for test number 101, 102, 103, and 104 to 2.
    7. Click the Start Lot button on the TSM toolbar to execute the test program. TestStand generates and displays a report on the Report pane of the Execution window.
    8. Review the Debug Test Results Log and review the limits of each test. The Production configuration is still configured to override the test limits the sequence specifies. The ProductionLimits.txt test limits file provides the test limits values for test 100 of the Continuity Test step but not for tests 102, 103, and 104. Because the test limits file designates only a <TestNumber> and does not designate a <StepId>, the test limits file overrides the test limits in every step that contains test 100.