Circuit Check

Circuit Check is an American industrial manufacturing company headquartered in Maple Grove, Minnesota. It designs and manufactures test fixtures and automated test equipment used to verify electronic assemblies during and at the end of the manufacturing process. Its customers operate across automotive, military and aerospace, medical, industrial, and computer-networking markets. The company began in 1978 as a spin-out from CircuitDrill, a printed-circuit-board drilling service bureau. Its initial products were bed-of-nails test fixtures, which use arrays of spring-loaded electrical probes to contact test points on a printed circuit board. Over time, Circuit Check expanded from basic in-circuit-test fixtures into more complex equipment supporting both in-circuit testing and functional testing. Among the company's notable fixture developments is a pneumatically actuated clamshell design. This configuration allows electrical probing from both sides of a circuit board, helping manufacturers test assemblies with access requirements on opposing surfaces. Circuit Check also developed a two-stage fixture that combines in-circuit testing and functional testing in a single fixture. Introduced in 2004 and protected by patent activity, the design uses probe pins of different lengths and staged compression heights to perform the two test functions in sequence or within one integrated fixture arrangement. In addition to fixture hardware, Circuit Check supplies automatic test equipment for end-of-line manufacturing inspection. Its systems may use the company's Excel-driven CCITest software platform or National Instruments' LabVIEW platform, depending on the application and customer requirements. This combination of mechanical fixtures, electrical interfaces, automation, and test software allows the company to provide production-test solutions rather than only individual fixture components. The company is described as having approximately 225 employees and seven direct operations distributed across six countries: the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, China, and Malaysia. Its international operating footprint supports customers and manufacturing programs in multiple regions, while its headquarters remains in Minnesota. Circuit Check is regarded as one of the larger North American manufacturers in the electronic and mechanical test-fixture segment. Its work is particularly important for high-volume or high-reliability production, where test fixtures must make repeatable electrical contact without damaging circuit boards or attached components. A further area of technical development concerns the mechanical stresses created by large numbers of test probes. Each spring-loaded probe exerts force on the device under test, and thousands of probes can collectively apply hundreds of pounds. Circuit Check developed a strain-gauge testing method to identify excessive board deformation caused by these forces. The results can indicate where additional supports are needed on the opposite side of the fixture, reducing the risk of cracked component packages, damaged solder joints, or other test-induced failures. This reflects the company's broader positioning as an engineering and manufacturing specialist focused on reliable production-test integration.

Circuit Check was established in 1978 after separating from CircuitDrill, a service bureau involved in printed-circuit-board drilling. The new company initially concentrated on bed-of-nails fixtures for in-circuit board testing. These fixtures use spring-loaded probes to contact designated points on a board and allow electrical test systems to check assemblies for manufacturing defects. As electronics manufacturing became more complex, Circuit Check broadened its engineering capabilities. The company developed fixtures for both in-circuit test and functional test, including a pneumatically operated clamshell fixture that could probe a circuit board from both sides. This design addressed applications in which test access or component placement made single-sided probing impractical. A significant development came in 2004, when Circuit Check created a two-stage fixture intended to combine in-circuit testing and functional testing in one fixture. The design used probe pins with different lengths and two compression heights, allowing the fixture to support distinct testing actions through staged mechanical engagement. The development was patented and represented a move toward more integrated manufacturing-test systems. The company also worked on methods for measuring the mechanical effects of fixture probing. Large fixtures can contain hundreds or thousands of spring-loaded probes, each applying several ounces of force. Together, these forces can bend a printed circuit board enough to stress ball-grid-array packages or weaken solder joints. Circuit Check developed a strain-gauge-based approach for identifying areas where probe forces create excessive deformation. Engineers can use the resulting measurements to determine where opposing supports should be installed, converting potentially damaging bending forces into more controlled compression. Alongside its fixture hardware, Circuit Check developed or supplied automated test equipment for end-of-line production testing. Its systems have been associated with either the Excel-driven CCITest platform or National Instruments' LabVIEW environment. This software flexibility enables test systems to be adapted to different manufacturing processes and customer control architectures. Circuit Check's customers span several demanding sectors, including automotive, military and aerospace, medical, industrial, and computer networking. The company has built an international operating presence with direct operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, China, and Malaysia. Reference material describes the business as having roughly 225 employees and seven direct operations across those countries. Its headquarters is in Maple Grove, Minnesota, and it is characterized as one of the larger North American manufacturers of electronic and mechanical test fixtures. The available reference material does not identify a founder, parent company, current executives, ownership structure, public listing, or an official corporate website. It also does not provide a detailed account of later acquisitions, major marketing campaigns, legal controversies, or leadership changes.

• 2004

  Integrated in-circuit and functional test fixture

  [1]Circuit Checken.wikipedia.org

  The company developed a two-stage fixture combining in-circuit testing with functional testing. The design used probe pins of different lengths and two compression heights and was associated with patent protection.

• 1978

  Formation as a CircuitDrill spin-out

  [1]Circuit Checken.wikipedia.org

  Circuit Check was founded as a spin-out from CircuitDrill, a printed-circuit-board drilling service bureau, and began by producing bed-of-nails fixtures for in-circuit testing.

• Strain-gauge method for fixture-force analysis

  [1]Circuit Checken.wikipedia.org

  Circuit Check developed a strain-gauge testing method for locating excessive circuit-board stress caused by the combined forces of large probe arrays. The method helps engineers identify where additional fixture supports may be required.

An engineering-led supplier of production test fixtures and automated test equipment for electronics manufacturers, emphasizing repeatable electrical contact, integration of in-circuit and functional testing, and protection of circuit boards from fixture-induced mechanical stress.

• In-circuit test fixture · 1978

  Bed-of-nails test fixtures

  These fixtures use arrays of spring-loaded electrical probes to contact test points on printed circuit boards. They were Circuit Check's initial product category and support repeatable electrical access during in-circuit manufacturing tests.

• Electronic and mechanical test fixture

  Clamshell test fixtures

  Pneumatically actuated clamshell fixtures open and close around a circuit board, allowing probes to contact the assembly from both sides. The configuration is suited to boards whose components or test points require opposing access.

• Integrated production test fixture · 2004

  Two-stage in-circuit and functional test fixtures

  This fixture architecture combines in-circuit testing and functional testing in one mechanically staged system. Different probe lengths and compression heights allow the fixture to perform separate testing operations while reducing the need for multiple dedicated fixtures.

• Automated manufacturing test equipment

  Automatic Test Equipment

  Circuit Check manufactures automated equipment for end-of-line production testing. These systems integrate fixture hardware, electrical interfaces, and test-control software for manufacturing environments in sectors such as automotive, medical, aerospace, industrial electronics, and networking.

• Test software platform

  CCITest

  CCITest is an Excel-driven software platform associated with Circuit Check's automated test systems. It provides a software environment for configuring or controlling production-test processes without requiring every deployment to use the same external test framework.

• Test software integration

  LabVIEW-based test systems

  Circuit Check also supports automated test equipment using National Instruments' LabVIEW platform. This option enables integration with LabVIEW-based instrumentation, controls, and manufacturing-test programs.

1. 1Circuit Checken.wikipedia.org