The industry-led consortium has launched an online survey that covers the many uses of boundary scan and is encouraging as many people as possible from the global supply chain to participate in the survey.

INEMI's Boundary Scan Adoption Project is looking for responses from boundary scan "users" (PCB designers, test engineers, engineering managers, design-for-test consultants, etc.), and from IC designers who would integrate boundary scan into their products.

The project was organized to promote wider adoption of boundary scan (JTAG/IEEE 1149.x, P1581) throughout the electronics industry, encourage semiconductor vendors to include the technology in their products, and promote the development of tools by automated test equipment vendors to support boundary scan based board test.

"If they use boundary scan, we want to know how well it works—or doesn't work; and if they do not use it, we would like to know why not," said Steve Butkovich, structural test manager for Cisco Systems Inc. and co-chair of the iNEMI Boundary Scan Adoption Project. "This information will help us improve test implementation and coverage for electronics products, ultimately benefiting the entire supply chain."

The questionnaire is divided into two sections—one for users and another for IC designers. Only aggregated data will be reported from the survey, plus participants have the option to respond anonymously.

INEMI is made up of more than 65 manufacturers with a mission to identify and close technology gaps, which includes the development and integration of the electronics industry supply infrastructure.