Production and test-engineering slang for a reference unit of the actual product, characterized and set aside to verify that test stations, fixtures and software give the expected results. Running the golden unit at the start of a shift or after a fixture change catches station drift and setup errors quickly. It works as a check standard in product form, but it gives no traceability unless its values were measured on traceable equipment.
Run the golden unit through station 2 before you start the lot, yesterday's yield drop smells like the fixture.
Also heard as
- golden sample
- gold unit
- golden board
Related terms
Check standard
A stable item measured regularly to confirm a measurement process still behaves as it did when characterized.
Artifact
A physical object that embodies a known value of a quantity, such as a mass, gauge block or standard resistor.
Verification
A check that an item is good enough for its stated requirements, usually ending in pass or fail with no full calibration data.