| Description: | The first production batch of about 250 receiver units has been delivered to ASTRON. The units are produced and tested by Prodrive in Son. The bare boards are stuffed mainly with SMD components, press-fit connectors and a few through-hole components like the antenna connectors. The antenna connectors (F-type) are soldered with a selective wave solder nozzle. During assembly the process is constantly monitored by optical inspection, flying probe testing and X-Ray inspection. The final test is the functionality test of the receiver unit.
Gijs en Menno paid a visit to Prodrive to watch the production and testing. For the functionality test a special board and software has been developed by Prodrive. The engineer of this setup is shown demonstrating the test. The measurement data is logged and stored per receiver unit. This information is used for the CRAFT database. With CRAFT it is possible to monitor the status of LOFAR components during their lifetime. |
