after the placement of an ic 12 onto the contacts 24 26 28 30 an input signal change is triggered and in step 72 the time response zv of the resulting output signal as 44 46 48 58 60 62 is evaluated next in step 74 a predetermined condition vb is set as a function of the time response zv while the output signal as 44 46 48 58 60 62 is continuously detected further it is checked in step 76 whether the predetermined condition is satisfied as long as this is not the case branching occurs in step 78 in which it is checked whether the maximum test time t_max has been exceeded if the answer to this query in step 78 is no the loop of 76 and 78 is run until either the predetermined condition is satisfied in step 76 or the maximum test time in step 78 is exceeded in both cases a branching follows to step 80 in which a measured value m of the output signal as 44 46 48 58 60 62 of the integrated circuit 12 is received the received measured value m is checked in step 82 to see whether it is an element of a permitted value range i_ 2 it is understood that i_ 2 can be identical to or different from the value range i_ 1 which is described in regards to fig2 and 3 if the measured value m is within interval i_ 2 the tested ic 12 is regarded as.