Shawtronics

Shawtronics - Penetrating Probes

Test and troubleshoot ICs in-circuit without removing the conformal coating

Shawtronics is a company dedicated to the design and manufacture of better probes for electronic test and diagnosis of in-circuit ICs. If you have been frustrated by the time and expense required to remove conformal coating from PCBs before they can be tested, you’re not alone. Shawtronics has designed probes that will test ICs in-circuit without removing the conformal coating. All the Shawtronics probes feature razor-sharp spring-loaded pins that will make a connection by penetrating conformal coating with a minimum of force. There are different designs for different IC packages, from DIL to SOIC, PLCC, QFP and other surface-mounted ICs. Shawtronics probes for through-hole ICs can be made to test on the chip side or the solder side of a PCB (two different designs). With more than a dozen 3D printers in its lab, Shawtronics can design and fabricate custom probes for many high-pin-count ICs that otherwise would have to be tested pin by pin.

On our ABI systems, higher pin count probes may be used with any lower pin count ICs of the same configuration. For example, a 32-pin standard DIL probe can be used to test 30-pin, 28-pin, 20-pin or any smaller standard DIL IC.

Shawtronics probes and guaranteed for a year, not including the replaceable pins. Bent pins on most probes means the end of the probe. The pins on Shawtronics probes are inexpensive and user-replaceable in a matter of seconds. Just pull the bent pin out of its socket and put in a replacement.

Shuttle probes are another Shawtronics innovation. They enable the testing of fine pitch (.02”) ICs by testing every other pin at one time. They have an indent that precisely fits the surface of the IC. A 13-pin probe can be made for a 100-pin QFP, for example. With the probe positioned on the IC, the first test on one side of the chip collects the signal from 13 pins. Then the pins get shuttled slightly to the other position limiter and the remaining 12 pins on that side of the IC are tested.

There is a probe design which will test all 100 or 144 pins of a .02-pitch IC in one go, but the pin type and pin count make it a costly probe. The close tolerances make correct positioning very difficult on an IC with that many pins. A gantry is required to hold the probe in place with sufficient force to penetrate the conformal coating on all those pins.

A gantry and a 64-channel switch are among the accessories which will be added to this page once product development is complete.

Because of the many variables in IC packages and in the design of custom probes, please contact us for a quote. All probes will be built to order. Delivery will generally be within about 2-4 weeks. When requesting a quote please specify an IC part number along with the package type, pin count, and pitch. You can specify a point type or we will provide the point type we have found to be most effective for that type of probe and IC. There are dozens of different pin configurations and point types. The two most often used are shown below in the first two images.

Probe Types

• Multiprobe up to 16 pins and .05 or .1 pitch
• Multiprobe up to 10 pins and .02 or .5mm pitch   
• DIL Probes up to 32 pins and .1 pitch      
• SOIC or PLCC Probes up to 32 pins and .05 pitch    
• DIL Wide Probes up to 32 pins and .1 pitch     
• Shuttle Probe up to 25 pins and .02 pitch     

See the chart below the probe images for examples of available probes. It is not a complete listing. Shawtronics’ designer likes a challenge and believes he can design a probe to test any IC.