Testing Guidelines
Capacitance and Testing
Unexpected capacitance can cause false failures in your cables.
Hipot testing as a process of applying high voltage to a cable for a certain amount of time and looking for problems. When voltage is ramped up, if the charge can surpass safe levels the test will abort and report an error.
Depending on the tester you are using, an error like the one described will be reported as a charge error or overcurrent error. Often capacitance can contribute to a charge or overcurrent error. Reducing the capacitance can help the cable pass.
There are several ways you can try to solve a charge or overcurrent error.
- Uncoil the cable to reduce capacitance.
- Make sure floating metal is attached to the test program.
- Adjust the test program so only certain nets are tested with high voltage.
- Lower the voltage on certain nets.
- Use the HV Control High Cap feature to solve capacitance issues. (Shown in the image.)
More information on how to solve errors can be found in the article, How to Hipot Highly Capacitive Cables.
Further Reading: