A quantitative method to decide where and when it is profitable to use models for integration and testing

Industrial trends show that the lead time and costs of integrating and testing high-tech multi-disciplinary systems are becoming critical factors for commercial success. In our research, we developed a method for early, model-based integration and testing to reduce this criticality. Although its benefits have been demonstrated in industrial practice, the method requires certain investments to achieve these benefits, e.g. time needed for modeling. Making the necessary trade-off between investments and potential benefits to decide when modeling is profitable is a difficult task that is often based on personal intuition and experience. In this paper, we describe how integration and test sequencing techniques can be used to quantitatively determine where and when the integration and testing process can profit from models. An industrial case study shows that it is feasible to quantify the costs and benefits of using models in terms of risk, time, and costs, such that the profitability can be determined

Selecting a suitable system architecture for testing and integration

A system architecture is selected in the early design phases of a product. A trade-off is made between the most important architectural views during this selection process. The required system functionality is realized in an architecture which is maintainable, extendible, manufacturable, testable and integratable. This work investigates how an architecture can be selected, such that it is testable and integratable. The elements of an architecture which is suitable for testing and integration are introduced first. These elements are: components, interfaces between components and a layering. The division of the system into components determines how the system can be integrated and how many integration steps are required. Next to that, not all components need to be selected for system level integration and testing. Some, low-risk, components are integrated and tested on a lower level or not tested at all. The selection of components to be considered for integration and testing also influences which interfaces are considered. The selection of an interface infrastructure influences integration and testing, next to the interfaces which result from component and interface selection. The interface infrastructure can reduce or increase the number of interfaces in the system. An interface infrastructure could also introduce that specific connectors need to be developed resulting in additional risk and more required testing. And finally, a layering defines how the system, consisting of components and interfaces, is clustered. This layering reduces the complexity of the system and therefore the complexity of the integration and test plan. The layering for integration and testing can be defined fairly late in the development process just before integration and testing begins. Next to that, the layering for integration and testing can be different than the normal organizational or functional layerings of a system. More layerings can be defined and used next to each other. Guidelines and examples of suitable selections of components, interface infrastructure and layerings will be given in the presentation

Test set improvement using a next-best-test-case algorithm

The development of a new semi-conductor manufacturing system, like the ASML wafer scanner, is mainly driven by time-to-market. The final test phases during the development phase of a wafer scanner can consist of many (100+) test cases. A family of wafer scanners is developed and introduced to spread out the development effort and maintain the time-to-market requirements. Test cases from previous system types in the family are used as the basis for the definition of new test cases. Experts investigate the changes in the system and which additional test cases are required. The quality of the test cases depends on the expert knowledge and this knowledge is not easily transferred to other experts. This paper presents an algorithm that is able to define which test case is most optimal, given a set of test cases. This algorithm uses a simple model of the test cases and the system under test and an information gain based method determine the next-best-test-case. Furthermore, a clustering technique is used to enable the usage of this method in an industrial setting, where large sets of test cases are common. Several cases have been performed using this method to identify where new test cases could be beneficial

Integration sequencing in complex manufacturing systems

The integration and test phase of complex manufacturing machines, like an ASML lithographic machine, are expensive and time consuming. The tests that can be performed at a certain point within the integration phase depend on the modules that are integrated. Therefore, the test sequence depends on the integration sequence. Thus, by optimizing the integration sequence of these modules, more tests can be done in parallel and valuable integration and test time can be reduced. In this paper, we introduce a mathematical model to describe an integration sequencing problem and we propose an algorithm to solve this problem optimally. Furthermore, we propose two heuristics to solve large industrial problems in limited computation time. Also, we show with a case study within the development of a lithographic machine that the described method can be used to solve real-life problems. TANGRAM, test strategy, test sequencing, manufacturing machines, semiconductor industry, integration sequencing

Test sequencing in a complex manufacturing system

Testing complex manufacturing systems, like the ASML TWINSCAN [2] lithographic machine, takes a lot of time and costs. Within the Tangram project, methods are investigated to reduce this test costs. In this article, we describe a method which is used to optimize a test sequence such that it takes the least amount of costs, or time. With several cases we demonstrate that this method can be used to optimize test sequences within the manufacturing of a TWINSCAN lithographic machine such that cycle time is reduced

Integration and test planning patterns in different organizations

Planning an integration and test phase is often done by experts in the visited organizations. These experts have a thorough knowledge about the system, integration and testing and the business drivers of an organization. An integration and test plan developedfor an airplane is different than the integration and test plan for a wafer scanner. Safety (quality) is most important for an airplane, while time-to-market is most important for a wafer scanner. These important aspects are reflected in the integration and test plan. A number of companies has been visited to investigate the influence of the business drivers on the resulting integration and test plans

Tandem quadruplication of HMA4 in the zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulator noccaea caerulescens

Zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulation may have evolved twice in the Brassicaceae, in Arabidopsis halleri and in the Noccaea genus. Tandem gene duplication and deregulated expression of the Zn transporter, HMA4, has previously been linked to Zn/Cd hyperaccumulation in A. halleri. Here, we tested the hypothesis that tandem duplication and deregulation of HMA4 expression also occurs in Noccaea. A Noccaea caerulescens genomic library was generated, containing 36,864 fosmid pCC1FOSTM clones with insert sizes ~20–40 kbp, and screened with a PCR-generated HMA4 genomic probe. Gene copy number within the genome was estimated through DNA fingerprinting and pooled fosmid pyrosequencing. Gene copy numbers within individual clones was determined by PCR analyses with novel locus specific primers. Entire fosmids were then sequenced individually and reads equivalent to 20-fold coverage were assembled to generate complete whole contigs. Four tandem HMA4 repeats were identified in a contiguous sequence of 101,480 bp based on sequence overlap identities. These were flanked by regions syntenous with up and downstream regions of AtHMA4 in Arabidopsis thaliana. Promoter-reporter b-glucuronidase (GUS) fusion analysis of a NcHMA4 in A. thaliana revealed deregulated expression in roots and shoots, analogous to AhHMA4 promoters, but distinct from AtHMA4 expression which localised to the root vascular tissue. This remarkable consistency in tandem duplication and deregulated expression of metal transport genes between N. caerulescens and A. halleri, which last shared a common ancestor >40 mya, provides intriguing evidence that parallel evolutionary pathways may underlie Zn/Cd hyperaccumulation in Brassicaceae

SOCIAL DESIRABILITY AND CYNICISM: BRIDGING THE ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR GAP IN CSR SURVEYS

Many consumer-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies suggest a positive link between the responsibility demonstrated by a company and consumers’ intention to favor the company in their purchases. Yet an analogous causal effect between corporate social and financial performances is not evident. This chapter conceptualizes how social desirability and cynicism contribute to the discrepancy between consumers’ attitudes and their actual purchase behavior, and analyzes why consumer choices indicated in surveys do not consistently convert into actions