Test, validation and hardware-in-the-loop

Validation is the process of demonstrating that an embedded system meets its specification and behaves correctly at the edges of its operating envelope, and of making that demonstration repeatable.

Our approach

Hardware validation covers electrical and functional verification of prototype hardware: rail and signal measurements, power and thermal analysis, transient and fault injection, and environmental testing.

Firmware testing covers unit tests for modules, integration tests for interfaces and system-level tests against requirements.

We design and build hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platforms, from single-board stimulus fixtures to multi-board systems with an embedded Linux controller, that exercise the product under simulated sensors, loads and faults and run unattended in CI. HIL is the basis of our regression testing and a practical source of evidence for functional safety work.

For production we provide bed-of-nails and functional fixtures, programming stations and test sequencing software so each unit off the line is verified.

We also perform pre-compliance measurements and prepare products for FCC, CE and IC testing. We can support extended validation testing with external labs for environmental, temperature, shock and vibration testing.

Result

Testing and validation reduce field failures, shortens future release cycles and produces useful baseline data for evaluating and evolving product performance.