Looking to overcome these difficulties, the Swiss based contract manufacturing services specialist has launched a built in self test (BIST) creation service. This is said to cut the time it takes to develop the solution and to free the customer's engineering staff from product test programming.
"Because we have considerable experience at doing this, we are very fast and therefore cost competitive," contended Michael Walser, head of global R&D. "Writing the software programs that test the device and interface between the MCU and the production test PC is not a core competence of most customers, but we do it all the time.
"Because we are a full service company, we have a detailed understanding of all the stages from R&D to production to ensure a smooth transition between all stages."
One of the first companies to take advantage of the service was a Swiss medical company that needed to get a product to market quickly. Escatec said it delivered the solution in half the time that it would otherwise have taken. "Medical is a growing area for us," explained Michael Walser, "as we are one of the few contract design and manufacturing companies to be certified to Class 2 and Class 3 for the manufacture and development of medical devices that is part of the ISO13485 quality management system."
