Portable Intermittent Fault Detector™ (PIFD™)

The PIFD is a patented diagnostic instrument that can simultaneously and continuously monitor all unit under test (UUT) circuits, individually at the same time, detecting intermittent faults that occur, even as short as *50 nanoseconds (0.00000005 seconds) in duration.  The PIFD is capable of interfacing with 128, 256, or 512 electrical connection points.

In addition to detecting and isolating intermittent faults, the PIFD AutoMap feature will automatically interrogate and store the as-designed wiring configuration for a good unit and then based on that “gold” configuration, detect any open, short, ohmic, impedance, drift or mis-wiring problem in subsequent UUTs.

Features

• Portable unit utilized on/off platform to test wiring to relays, circuit breakers, connectors, and ribbon-cables
• Rapidly detects and isolates permanent and intermittent shorts, opens, instability and EMI events
• Rapid set-up with powerful test software
• Quick testing: results displayed real-time
• Available with 128, 256, or 512 test points
• Detects and isolates permanent and intermittent shorts, opens, instability and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) events
• Rapid set-up with powerful test software
• Quick testing: results displayed real-time

Functions

• Intermittency – detected to less than *50ns on every test point individually, simultaneously and continuously
• Continuity – programmable continuity checks against referenced values
• Log Scope – instant display of a circuits or component’s stability
• Shorts – two modes providing shorts indication and shorts tracing capability
• Analyze – provides an impedance signature for the Unit Under Test
• AutoMap – rapid mapping of circuits for complex and/or ad-hoc testing

Benefits

• PIFD eliminates:
  • Repeated returns of the same assembly for repair
  • Excessive spare part stock to cover units out of service
  • Downtime to replace units
  • Scrapping costs associated with unrepairable units
  • Wasted test time using technology that cannot detect intermittent faults
• Reduces No Fault Found (NFF), Can Not Duplicate (CND), Re-Test OK (RTOK), No Evidence of Failure (NEOF)
• Reduces life-cycle support costs
• Increases operational availability, asset availability, and mission capable rates
• Compliance with US Department of Defense (DoD) MIL-PRF-32516 for electronic test equipment, intermittent fault detection and isolation for chassis and backplane conductive paths and their associated wiring harnesses

Additional Information

• National Stock Number (NSN)
  • PIFD-256 – NSN 6625-01-696-1902
  • PIFD-512 – NSN 6625-01-696-1235