AUTOMATED TEST POSITION MONITORING AND NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

An automated monitoring and notification system for use with a testing arrangement is able to identify "potentially faulty test sockets". The system uses a set of pre-existing data contained in a manufacturing database regarding the number of device failures for each socket. A threshold number of consecutive device failures is used to flag a particular test socket as "suspect". Another database, containing historical "failure" data for the test sockets is then queried upon identification of each "suspect". When the number of "failures" for a "suspect" exceeds a predetermined threshold, the socket is identified as "potentially faulty" and an alarm is sent to the system user.