EE-Evaluation Engineering articles from June 2003

EE-Evaluation Engineering archives from June 2003

Making them challenging and fun. (Editorial).
June 1, 2003... I am always interested in educational programs that expose middle and high school students to some aspects of the field of engineering. These programs can instill a desire to pursue a college degree for students who initially might not have...

eBay introduces Business marketplace. (In the News).
June 1, 2003... eBay has initiated eBay Business, a marketplace including more than 11,000 listings every week in the test and measurement category. The offerings range from oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and signal generators to meters, probes, and power...

Johnstech acquires YieldPro technology. (In the News).
June 1, 2003... Johnstech International has purchased the YieldPro and YieldPro Array contactor technologies and products from Agilent Technologies. The agreement includes a license to use existing patents, design and manufacturing methodologies, and an...

Companies team up to develop automated diagnostic tests. (In the News).
June 1, 2003... Keithley Instruments and Novellus Systems are collaborating on the development of electrical process diagnostic tests for copper and low-k integration based on Keithley's S600 Automatic DC Parametric Test Platform. The automated tests will...

Dates.
June 1, 2003... Environmental Test Courses Equipment Reliability Institute will hold two courses later this month in Santa Barbara, CA: Contaminants and Moisture Can Disrupt Your Electronics on June 16-18 and Optimizing HALT, ESS, and HASS of Electronic...

Software upgrade includes ActiveX controls. (Product Briefing).
June 1, 2003... TestPoint Version 5.0 includes several new capabilities for the test and measurement development software, beginning with ActiveX user-interface controls. A complete copy of the company's new TechComponents ActiveX controls provides knobs,...

Software features secured Web interface. (Product Briefing).
June 1, 2003... Arendar[TM] .NET Test and Measurement Data Management Software features native .NET, ActiveX, and COM interfaces so industry-standard development environments can be used to configure, store, and retrieve test data from any location at any...

Probing Station accelerates design verification. (Product Briefing).
June 1, 2003... The Huntron[R] Access Automated Probing Station for PCBs provides 20-micron accuracy through icrostepping and linear encoding. By using either the standard built-in or a custom test probe, the station adds flying-probe technology to new or...

Boundary scan package designed for Agilent's 307x testers. (Product Briefing).
June 1, 2003... Symphony 3070 is a hardware and software boundary scan upgrade for the Agilent Technologies 307x family of in-circuit testers. With this upgrade, users of Agilent Technologies 307x family of incircuit testers. With this upgrade, users of...

Optical tester uses patented image analysis technology. (Product Briefing).
June 1, 2003... The Optima 7210[TM] Optical Process Test (OPT) System is based on Configural Recognition[TM] object recognition and image analysis technology and generates programs using a single example board. It delivers defect detection and in-process...

SOC System offers 2.5-Gb/s channels. (Product Briefing).
June 1, 2003... The Fusion HFi SOC Test System features 2.5-Gb/s digital channels and a modular, integrated thermal management system. It addresses today's mix of high-speed standards with a patented native differential pin, integrated per-pin source...

New techniques slash test time and double test coverage. (Cable/Harness Test).
June 1, 2003... Find out how an automated cable/harness testing strategy helped one electric-rail car manufacturer reduce test and rework time and increase customer satisfaction. Since 1975, Siemens Transportation Systems has received orders for more than...

GPIB control with Java on Linux or Windows: engineers should spend their time on yield improvement and introduction of products, not rewriting previously debugged code. (PC-Based Test).
June 1, 2003... Everyone contemplating a test and measurement task is confronted with a choice: Which language is best for my application? Today's market offers many choices of text-based languages and some graphical languages for test development. As a...

Inappropriate SRS specifications: SRS is a powerful tool when used for its intended purpose. Find out what one industry expert recommends to avoid inaccurate results. (Vibration Test).
June 1, 2003... The shock response spectrum (SRS) is a fairly simple concept that has been in use for years. (1,2,3) But occasionally it falls victim to an inappropriate test specification meant to exploit SRS features. The SRS may be used for two diverse...

Redefining cost of test in an SOC world: optimizing COT for SOCs requires a new way of thinking. (IC ATE).
June 1, 2003... Cost of test (COT) is of paramount importance to semiconductor manufacturers. COT financial models are widely used for determining the COT for ICs and ATE selection. Over time, ATE manufacturers have developed equipment taking these criteria...

How to deal with paralysis by analysis: with this insight into the market, perhaps your next new-product introduction can be a lot less stressful and more successful. (Manager's Forum).
June 1, 2003... Advances in technology and electronic design tools, business desegregation, and product-development options provide managers with more choices than ever as they approach new design cycles. Questions arise regarding the use of internal,...

LabVIEW 7 Express. (Software).
June 1, 2003... Four years of engineering effort at National Instruments recently culminated in LabVIEW[TM] 7 Express, a major upgrade to the company's graphical programming software. LabVIEW 7 Express simplifies the creation of measurement and automation...

Test vector compression makes more from less: depreciated ATE and compressed patterns make IC testing almost free. (Design for Testability).
June 1, 2003... Design automation is the key to the development of very large ICs. Optimizing the connection and layout of millions of gates to efficiently perform complex functions is not a job to which humans are well suited. There simply are too many...

High-performance fabric-over-foam gaskets. (Dealing with EMC).
June 1, 2003... Over the last 10 years, there has been a proliferation in the use of conductive fabric-over-foam gaskets for EMI shielding. Advances in plating adhesion, availability of UL 94V-0 flame-rated material, and profile design have made...

PXI state of the union. (PXI Systems Alliance).
June 1, 2003... New PXI hardware and software specifications recently were released by the PXI Systems Alliance (PXISA), an organization of more than 50 companies from around the world dedicated to providing an open platform for measurement and automation...

The network's slow today: The packets don't lie. They hold the answer to your network performance problem. (Protocol Analyzers).
June 1, 2003... ''Don't fix it if it ain't broke" is an often-heard troubleshooting maxim. Although users may report that a modern data network is faulty, there's a good chance it isn't broken in the traditional sense, just degraded. Nevertheless, if it isn't...

Reed-relay switch plug-in. (New Products: ATE).
June 1, 2003... The Model 1260-111/A, part of the Adapt-a-Switch line, is a high-voltage/current dry reed relay switch plug-in rated for 1,000,000 operations at full-rated, 60-W load. The card contains 12 Form A and 12 Form B independent dry-reed relays that...

Five-slot mainframe. (New Products: ATE).
June 1, 2003... The CT-310A is a five-slot, portable VXI chassis that features >500 W of total usable power and a pressurized airflow system. Power supply voltages are monitored and displayed via front-panel LEDs and available for powering external circuits....

Option for DMMs. (New Products: Data Acquisition).
June 1, 2003... The 38XR data acquisition package comprises a 10,000-count, full-function digital multimeter with Windows-based datalogging software and PC interface cabling. The 38-SW software logs, displays, and stores data from all 38XR measurement...

Multifunction I/O Devices. (New Products: Data Acquisition).
June 1, 2003... The NI PXI-6120 and PCI-6120 I/O Devices deliver 16-b analog input resolution at 800 kS/s on each of four channels for both transient and frequency-domain measurements. They offer 64 million samples of onboard memory, two 16-b analog output...

I/O Modules. (New Products: Data Acquisition).
June 1, 2003... The WBK40[TM] and WBK41[TM] Modules add up to 224 thermocouple inputs to the WaveBook/ 516E[TM] while maintaining the measurement bandwidth. An onboard 200-kHz A/D measures the TC inputs synchronously with the WaveBook's 1-MHz measurements. The...

Scopes and probing systems. (New Products: Instrumentation).
June 1, 2003... The 54855A 6-GHz and the 54854A 4-GHz Infiniium Oscilloscopes offer four full-bandwidth channels, each sampling at 20 GS/s. They also capture four full-bandwidth, real-time signals off a single trigger event. The MegaZoom Deep Memory features...

Switching Amplifier Filter. (New Products: Instrumentation).
June 1, 2003... The AUX-0025 Switching Amplifier Measurement Filter is a multipole LRC passive filter intended to be used ahead of an audio analyzer that provides the necessary attenuation of out-of-band signals and reduces the steepness of the fast switching...

Amplifier and filter board. (New Products: Instrumentation).
June 1, 2003... The AAF-3PCI programmable, two- to eight-channel, plug-and-play PCI board offers optional low-pass and high-pass filters, amplifiers, or amplifier/filter/bandpass combination formats including software. It is compatible with 12-or 16-b A/D...

SiGe Probes. (New Products: Instrumentation).
June 1, 2003... The WaveLink D600 7.5-GHz, the D300 4-GHz, and the D200 2.5-GHz Bandwidth Probes incorporate an SiGe front end and Adjustable TwinTip technology controlled by a thumb-wheel device. The maximum distance between the probe tips is 3 mm; the...

Power splitters/combiners. (New Products: Instrumentation).
June 1, 2003... The SM P6905 incorporates six two-way, 00 phase, 10-MHz to 1-G Hz power splitters/combiners in a high-density, doublewide SMIP//[TM] module. When used as a splitter, it delivers two outputs (times six per module) of equal amplitude with...

Spectrum analyzer. (New Products: Instrumentation).
June 1, 2003... ProCAT Portable is an eight-channel spectrum analyzer housed in a lightweight, compact chassis that connects to a notebook computer. The analysis functions include FFT with phase, averaged FFT, inverse FFT, PSD, averaged PSD, transfer function...

GPIB bus extender. (New Products: Instrumentation).
June 1, 2003... The Model 4897 extends the GPIB bus beyond its 20-meter limit and expands the number of devices beyond the specification limit of 14. It works with both fiber-optic and metallic cables and provides bus extensions greater than 5,000 meters. The...

Dual Pentium III 6U CompactPCI Universal CPU Module, PICMG 2.16 & 2.9 compliant.
June 1, 2003... ADLINK's cPCI-6820 extends the performance, functionality, and feature set for 6U cPCI single slot processor board. Dual Mobile Pentium-Ill with GbE & PMC is Ideal for applications requiring maximum throughput and extreme computing power. PICMG...

New 3U PXI chassis cube & 3U PXI embedded computer.
June 1, 2003... The 6-slot PXIS-2506 3U chassis provides a portable bench-top and wall-mount platform for 5 PXI peripheral expansions in a system. A front removable 150W Compact PCI power supply provides the required power. PXI-3710, 3U PXI Pentium-III system...

DAQ-2010, smart and small footprint data acquisition solution.
June 1, 2003... A 4CH simultaneous 2MHz, 14-bit A/D and 2 CH 1MHz D/A multifunction card. It provides simultaneous operation, high immunity to noise, analog and digital triggering, automatic calibration, and multiple card synchronization capability. Advanced...

64-CH 3MS/s 12-bit multi-function PXI module.
June 1, 2003... To meet fast setting time requirement in multiplexed analog input card, ADLINK develops the customized programmable gain amplifier (PGA) with special custom high precision resistor array in PXI-2204, the 64-channel multi-function DAQ. The...