Method for calculating adaptive inference test figure of merit

Claim 1

An adaptive inference method of calculating a figure of merit for detected faults in an electrical or electronic device or assembly, some of said faults not having been observed in prior tests, or obtained from stored data and information in said adaptive inference system, or bearing a direct relationship to a problem being reviewed, said method comprising the steps of: a) performing a position-dependent, time-ordered test upon an electrical or electronic device or assembly to provide a comprehensive error analysis; b) developing an error plane or detected faults consisting of channels on one axis of said error plane and time samples on another axis of said error plane, each channel of said error plane being represented in three ways: (i) as bits, defining binary words representing a number of errors, (ii) as groups, defining a binary word representing a number of times an error changes from a "no error condition" to an "error condition," and (iii) as a range, defining bits that represent an error over a segment of said error plane; (c) comparing said detected faults with stored faults data and information; and (d) calculating a figure of merit for each of said bits, groups and range errors, and weighting and summing each of said bits, groups and range errors to provide a total figure of merit for said detected fault.