Six Product Development Activities to Unlock Test Insights

Testing plays a central role in the product development process, ensuring that products meet functionality, performance, and safety requirements. Within this broader process, six focus areas — component selection, functional block validation, block integration, incremental design optimization, manufacturing preparation, and regulatory and safety verification — are essential. These activities span various phases of the product development life cycle.

While engineers conduct testing throughout every stage of product development, this white paper focuses on the six areas that offer the greatest potential to unlock critical test insights. These activities can help you transform your ideas into tangible, manufacturable products designed to specifications.

Optimizing Test Coverage at Every Stage

The following sections break down each of the six activities, outlining common challenges, practical solutions, and proven methods for improving test coverage, accuracy, and efficiency. At each stage, you will see how the Keysight Smart Bench Essentials Plus instruments can help you design with confidence, minimize costly iterations, and accelerate the delivery of high-quality products.

Activity 1: Component testing and selection

Every product begins with individual components, and the quality of those components has a direct impact on the final design. This section examines the critical role of component characterization during early design, outlines common challenges engineers face, and presents strategies to streamline the selection process using automated testing.

Challenge

During the initial design phase, component selection is central to achieving product development goals while adhering to project constraints and requirements. Engineers must evaluate competing vendor components and ensure that they meet technical design requirements for form, fit, functionality, performance, power consumption, and more. This work can be tedious, requiring large amounts of data to evaluate multiple competing components.

Solution

Automate your test sequences and the recording of test results to simplify the component characterization process. You want to surround your device under test (DUT) with the essential test instruments shown in Figure 2. These basic instruments are the backbone of your test bench, playing a pivotal role in the quality and performance of your products. Smart Bench Essentials Plus can help you gain critical test insights you can trust.

When each instrument performs as intended and follows the correct sequences, measurements are captured with the proper test signals and power biasing. Depending on the output signal you are measuring, you may want to use a DMM with high linearity and precision for accurate test results. By capturing data across all test sequences and configurations, you gain deeper insights into your DUT’s behavior. Understanding the limitations of your DUT during component testing and selection can help you avoid issues later in the design process.

Tips and methods

• Use a set of instruments with a compatible interface and programmability, each serving a distinct function:
• Activate instrument-triggering features to aid communication.
• Use programming software or graphical instrument control software to automate your tests and record all the results easily.
• Repeat the same, unbiased characterization process for all components to ensure a fair and accurate comparison.
• Give higher priority to specifications that are imperative to your design during the component selection process.

Read the white paper to learn about the following:

• functional block validation
• block integration and testing
• iteration and incremental design optimization
• manufacturing preparation
• regulatory and safety verification