EE-Evaluation Engineering articles from June 2004

EE-Evaluation Engineering archives from June 2004

Avoiding patent litigation.(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... While working on your latest design project, you come up with a new technique that promises to give your company a competitive advantage in the test industry. Integrating this breakthrough into your company's new products surely will elevate...

Pre-owned equipment resellers added to assurance program.(In the News)
June 1, 2004... Agilent Technologies has added DoveBid Test and Measurement Group, MetricTest, and TestEquity as authorized resellers to the Agilent Advantage Assurance program. Pre-owned instruments sold under this program will have been evaluated,...

Partners Program established by Anritsu.(In the News)
June 1, 2004... Anritsu has established the Handheld Solutions Partners Program to work with software providers to develop integrated test solutions for the company's hand-held test instruments. The program addresses the testing requirements created by the...

STC membership list grows.(In the News)
June 1, 2004... The Semiconductor Test Consortium (STC) announced the expansion of its international roster. Analog Devices, Fujitsu, Philips Semiconductor, Renesas, and Toshiba have joined founders Intel and Motorola as members. In addition, Acqiris SA,...

Virtual instrumentation conference.(Dates)
June 1, 2004... NIWeek[TM] 2004, the 10th annual conference and exhibition sponsored by National Instruments, will be held Aug. 17-19 at the Austin Convention Center in Texas. NI Week will include more than 180 technical sessions focusing on developments with...

Vibration Analyzer accommodates 56 channels.(Product Briefing)
June 1, 2004... The portable ZonicBook/618E[TM] Vibration Analyzer with eZ-Series[TM] Analysis and Monitoring Software features an Ethernet engine powered by a PowerPC processor that transfers data to the PC in real time at 2+ MB/s. Up to 56 channels of...

Module simultaneously samples eight inputs.(Product Briefing)
June 1, 2004... The PMD-1608FS Personal Measurement Device[TM] (PMD) provides eight simultaneously sampled, 16-b analog inputs with continuous multichannel sample rates up to 100 kS/s, burst sample rates up to 200 kS/s, 8 b of digital I/O, and a 32-b counter....

Test set conducts radio layer measurements.(Product Briefing)
June 1, 2004... The MT8860A WLAN Test Set with a PCI bus incorporates a universal golden radio for conducting both transmitter and receiver measurements based on IEEE 802.11. It covers both the 2.4-GHz to 2.5-GHz and 4.8-GHz to 6-GHz ISM frequency bands. ...

Software expands real-time platform to PCs.(Product Briefing)
June 1, 2004... LabVIEW 7.1 features five new Express VIs to generate and modify analog and digital stimulus signals for NI digitizers, signal generators, and high-speed digital I/O platforms. It directly integrates with NI Analog Editor and Digital Waveform...

Testing consumer audio and video SOCs.(SOC Test)(Cover Story)
June 1, 2004... The consumer world is converging, and the lines between consumer, computation, and communications applications continue to blur as more and more functionality appears in each consumer device. For example, cell phones, only one type of device,...

Using USB as a data acquisition interface: learn about the similarities and differences of USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 and how they impact system performance.(PC-Based Test)
June 1, 2004... The Universal Serial Bus (USB) has become the de facto low-cost PC interface standard for consumer applications. But only very recently has it become a popular interface for data acquisition applications. As the new kid on the block, many data...

Product focus: accurate test without ATE-generated vectors.(Design for Test)
June 1, 2004... A unique opportunity to address SOC accuracy vs. cost of test challenges comes with the development of BIST Assist 6.4 by Agilent Technologies. When integrated into Agilent's 93000 Series SOC Tester, a BIST Assist board allows four high-speed...

The Achilles heel of modern electronics: analog fault monitoring based on neural network technology can be an alternative to conventional digital testing for finding aging-related intermittencies.(Cable/Harness Test)
June 1, 2004... Digital measurement technology certainly has taken the test industry forward, mostly with giant strides. The exact opposite may be true, however, when it is applied to testing for aging-related failure modes such as intermittency or no fault...

Testing implantable medical devices: minimal analog access ports make testing today's complex digital implantable medical devices a unique challenge.(Medical Electronics Test)
June 1, 2004... Electronic test of medical devices shares some obvious challenges with testing for military applications. FDA and ISO 13485 test requirements aren't the same as military standards, but a highly regulated environment creates a certain overhead...

A tutorial: all about buying a protocol analyzer; If you aren't familiar with the latest generation of protocol analyzers, this article can help you understand the main facets of these multifunctional tools.(Protocol Analyzers)
June 1, 2004... Protocol analysis is the process of looking at network traffic to understand or troubleshoot what is being communicated, who is communicating, and the timing of communications across the media and equipment on a network. In some situations,...

Exposing hard-to-find defects: how many times have your customers returned products or circuit boards with reported defects that you can't find?(Vibration Test)
June 1, 2004... Every manufacturer experiences this situation at some time. Your customer reports a problem in your product and sends it back to you. You test the faulty product in your lab, and the problem doesn't occur. Sometimes you try to bend it or tap it...

Curbing the power of radiated EMI in ASIC designs: poor PCB track layout isn't the only culprit causing radiated EMI. Here are some simple design techniques that can reduce EMI from high-speed ASICs.(EMC Design)
June 1, 2004... Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is a latent problem the extent of which can only be determined after the entire system has been designed, built, and made operational. That's when electromagnetic emissions measurements can be made to...

Life testing and reliability predictions for electromechanical relays: an industry expert discusses use of the Weibull distribution for life testing electromechanical relays.(Life Testing)
June 1, 2004... Life tests for electro-mechanical relays can be set up using relatively small sample sizes, typically less than 30 relays. To achieve predictions of expected life with reasonably high confidence, one method uses the two-parameter Weibull...

Modular Scanning Matrix.(ATE)
June 1, 2004... The SC6540 Modular Scanning Matrix, designed for use with the company's OMNIA and HypotULTRA III electrical safety testers, is built using either a master scanning matrix or a slave scanning matrix configuration. The master scanning matrix...

Probing System.(ATE)
June 1, 2004... The Cluster Probing System (CPS) combines multiple test configurations within one system. It consists of a family of high throughput probe systems (currently up to six) configured around a single high-speed robotic material handling unit. The...

Rubidium Frequency Standard.(Instrumentation)
June 1, 2004... The 2965AR Rubidium Frequency Standard contains an atomic time base with a stability of 5 X [10.sup.-11] per month and combines a 50-MHz direct digital synthesizer with 10-MHz and 5-MHz outputs. An auto-adaptive disciplining algorithm does not...

DC Power Supply.(Instrumentation)
June 1, 2004... The Model 1672 DC Power Supply provides two variable voltage outputs of 0 to 32-VDC/0 to 3 A and one fixed 5-VDC/3-A output. It features independent voltage and current controls for variable output, CV/CC operation, overload-indication LED for...

WAN Analyzer.(Communications Test)
June 1, 2004... The OptiView[TM] T1/E1 WAN Analyzer integrates packet capture, statistical analysis, and network discovery. It provides a view of an entire enterprise from speeds as low as fractional T1/E1 circuits to as high as OC-12 links across multiple...

VoIP Test Platform.(Communications Test)
June 1, 2004... The Harmony VoIP and TDM Test Platform offers bulk call generation and termination, network simulation, protocol analysis, call monitoring, conditional scripting, and event logging for testing telecom applications and equipment. It tests VoIP...

Analog Input Card.(Data Acquisition)
June 1, 2004... The PCI-1714 Analog Input Card streams continuous data from single-ended analog samples to host memory at a rate of 30 MS/s. Dedicated 12-b ADCs are used for each of the four input channels for simultaneous sampling. Several trigger modes are...

PCI boards.(Data Acquisition)
June 1, 2004... The RCP 1612 and 3212 Data Acquisition Boards feature 2,048-sample A/D FIFO buffers and 256-position A/D channel/gain queues. Models with four 12-bit D/A channels also are available. The three 8-b digital I/O ports can be configured as inputs...

Recorder/Playback controller.(PC-Based Test)
June 1, 2004... The StreamStor[TM] PXI-808 Recorder and Playback Disk Controller and the Big River DM4 1U Rack-Mount Chassis deliver 200 MB/s data storage rate using Serial ATA disk drives. The controller features simultaneous streaming (read/write),...

PXI simulation card.(PC-Based Test)
June 1, 2004... The PXI 4011, a single-ended incremental encoder simulation card, provides four channels with three tracks per channel, and the user part is galvanically isolated from the PXI part (not grounded). The card has a voltage range between 5 to 30 V...

Frequency counter.(PC-Based Test)
June 1, 2004... The single-width 3U P635 PXI Counter Module features eight frequency measurement channels to monitor a variety of pulse sources in a range of 0.06 Hz to 100 kHz. TTL inputs, differential input circuits with input ranges from [+ or -]20 mV to [+...

Multifunction Module.(PC-Based Test)
June 1, 2004... The 3U PXI Model 41-250 Multifunction Module incorporates a 16-b, 4 1/2-digit DMM with a capture mode of up to 6,500 readings/s and a 24-b high-resolution mode. Features include a multiplexer for the DMM input, digital I/O functions, a...

Digital pattern generator.(PC-Based Test)
June 1, 2004... The Ultrafast UF7221 PCI Card provides a maximum output rate of 40 MHz on 32 digital channels and can be equipped with up to 4,096-Mb signal memory. Each 4-b nibble can be programmed with a different high and low output level from -2 V to +10 V...