As electronics production becomes more complex, and more expensive, board designers and manufacturers require tools that are better suited to handling the complexities of new designs. If this sounds like the same story you’ve heard from JTAG test companies for the past 10 – 15 years, it’s because now, more than ever, Boundary Scan Test Software / JTAG test and programming solutions are the best (read: most economical, accurate, safe, reliable, repeatable, consistent, flexible), choice for the handling of modern electronics.

This is the first in a series of observations on how Boundary Scan / JTAG tools can help reduce costs through the entire product life cycle, while ensuring higher quality product builds. Because we’ve noticed Boundary Scan/JTAG testing can have a significant positive impact on electronics design/prototype, production, and support when implemented at the outset of a project, we thought it would be worth spending some time to share the ways in which Boundary Scan/JTAG has helped our customers over the past decade.

Some of the topics we’ll address through this series include:

Design for Test: It all starts here! Planning Boundary Scan/JTAG test and programming into the design of the product will save time and money later in the project. Prior planning prevents poor performance.

Prototyping: When and how does Boundary Scan/JTAG testing and programming enter the picture? How will this save us money?

Production: Can Boundary Scan/JTAG test be applied in high volume production environments? Can it help us reduce the number of boards in the bone pile?

Support: Taking Boundary Scan tests and JTAG programming solutions into the field to support customers, chase down problems, pin-point failures, and ultimately deliver higher quality service with precise accuracy, saving you and your customer valuable time and resources.

Regardless of where you fit in the product cycle, Boundary Scan Test Software / JTAG testing and programming solutions are guaranteed to save you money by greatly reducing the amount of time you spend debugging boards while boosting the accuracy with which you can rapidly determine the cause of failures on the board. This could potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars both on the devices themselves as well as in time saved debugging boards.