py_dvt_ate

Coupled Physics DVT Simulation Platform

A software simulation environment for offline development of ATE (Automated Test Equipment) characterisation algorithms. Accurately models thermal-electrical coupling, enabling DVT engineers to develop and validate test sequences without physical laboratory access.

Overview

py_dvt_ate simulates a complete DVT test bench:

• Thermal Chamber - Temperature control with realistic ramp and settling behaviour
• Programmable Power Supply - Voltage/current control and measurement
• Digital Multimeter - DC voltage measurement with configurable integration time
• DUT Models - Device Under Test simulation with thermal-electrical coupling (e.g., LDO voltage regulators)

Key Features

• Coupled Physics Simulation - DUT self-heating affects electrical parameters realistically
• SCPI Protocol - Industry-standard commands for instrument control
• Hardware Abstraction - Same test code works with simulated or real instruments
• Multiple Interfaces - CLI, programmatic API, and Streamlit dashboard
• Data Persistence - SQLite for metadata, Parquet for time-series measurements

Documentation

Document	Purpose
Requirements	Defines what the system must do
Technical Specification	Specifies how to implement the system
Architecture Decisions	Explains why decisions were made

Installation

# Install with development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Quick Start

Interactive Dashboard

Launch the Streamlit dashboard to visualise the physics simulation and run tests:

py-dvt-ate dashboard

This opens a browser window with:

• Live Simulation - Real-time temperature/voltage charts with physics coupling
• Test Execution - Run TempCo characterisation tests
• Results Viewer - Browse and analyse historical test results

CLI Commands

# Start the simulation server (TCP ports for SCPI instruments)
py-dvt-ate serve

# List available tests
py-dvt-ate tests list

# Run a TempCo test
py-dvt-ate tests run tempco --config config/tempco_test.yaml

Programmatic API

from py_dvt_ate.instruments import InstrumentFactory
from py_dvt_ate.simulation import SimulationServer

# Start simulation server
server = SimulationServer()
server.start()

# Create instruments via HAL
factory = InstrumentFactory()
instruments = factory.create_from_config("config/default.yaml")

# Control instruments using standard interfaces
instruments.chamber.set_temperature(85.0)
instruments.psu.set_voltage(1, 5.0)
instruments.psu.enable_output(1, True)
voltage = instruments.dmm.measure_dc_voltage()

print(f"Output voltage: {voltage:.4f} V")

Project Status

Status: MVP Complete (v0.1.0)

The core vertical slice is functional:

• Physics engine with thermal-electrical coupling
• Virtual instruments (chamber, PSU, DMM)
• Hardware Abstraction Layer
• SCPI-over-TCP server
• Test framework with TempCo test
• Streamlit dashboard
• SQLite/Parquet data persistence

See the requirements document for the full scope and future phases.

Technology Stack

• Language: Python 3.11+
• Physics: NumPy, SciPy
• Configuration: Pydantic, YAML
• CLI: Typer
• Dashboard: Streamlit
• Data: SQLite, PyArrow (Parquet)

Author

Kai Chappell

Licence

Proprietary - All rights reserved. See LICENSE for details.