Thermal chambers have found a place in the psyche of test, quality, and production engineers—and for good reason. Chambers have been a staple for testing and conditioning materials and electronics for many decades.

First developed as passive conditioning tools, chambers have become standard fare for all types of temperature testing. They come with different sizes, configurations, and performances. Today, many test regimes involve dynamic measurements in which each device in a batch needs wire and cable connections running from the devices in the test chamber out to monitoring equipment on the outside of the chamber. In addition to cabling issues, the need to reduce test time continues to play a major role in allocating test resources. These are just a few instances where fixed-dimension chambers are poorly suited for the task. However, chambers are so prolific they often stand in as a “good enough.”

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