News
Battery-operated, 6.2-GHz real-time spectrum analyzer incorporates DPX technology, GPS, and mapping
6/24/2008
Tektronix describes its latest real-time spectrum analyzer, the $22,900, rechargeable-battery-operated, 10-kHz to 6.2-GHz SA2600, as a handheld instrument.
Advantest buys Credence auto ATE unit for $5M 6/18/2008
The move comes after Credence in early June reported an $18.7 million loss for its fiscal Q2 and after the test and measurement player in February announced the sale of its diagnostics and characterization business to DCG Systems Inc.Units underscore importance of USB-based modular instruments 6/6/2008
Agilent has underscored USB’s importance as an instrumentation platform with the addition of digital-oscilloscope and waveform-generator modules to an already broad, but little publicized, line of USB-based plug-in instruments that you can also use as stand-alone units.Mentor Graphics acquires NXP design-for-test technology, developers 5/6/2008
Mentor Graphics and NXP Semiconductors today announced an exchange of DFT (design-for-test) technology and talent that will see NXP adopting Mentor's tools while Mentor gains rights to NXP's internal DFT technologies and acquires a group of NXP's DFT developers.Small footprint value-priced scopes offer bigger displays, deeper memory, bus debugging, and more 4/22/2008
Tektronix’s new DPO3000-series of lunchbox-sized, two- and four-channel, 100-, 300-, and 500-MHz-bandwidth scopes provides more than three times the screen area and 500 times the waveform-memory depth of Tek’s largest selling scopes, based on unit volume—the small-footprint TDS3000 series.In-Depth
Measurement-based simulation simplifies analysis of lossy backplanes and cables 7/10/2008
A systematic approach uses DSO-based TDR and TDT measurements to construct models whose simulated response displays an uncanny resemblance to the response of the real hardware.Theory of relativity visits “real-time” clock 6/26/2008
TALES FROM THE CUBE: What would make a logic analyzer's internal clock run faster than real time, but only while being set?Unraveling the dynamic-range specification in modern spectrum analyzers 5/29/2008
Using a relatively simple chart to calculate dynamic range, along with speed and accuracy specifications, ensures that you choose the right spectrum analyzer and make appropriate price/performance trade-offs.Overcoming USB measurement-test-setup issues 5/13/2008
Designers must meet stringent constraints to comply with the USB-IF spec. Clever techniques can help you design your system to meet these specs.As SOCs grow, test-and-measurement instruments move on-chip 2/21/2008
Complex ICs are not only absorbing more of the systems around them, but also swallowing the test equipment designers use to bring up, evaluate, and calibrate the chips.Experts
The design-and-test merger 6/26/2008
An effective design-and-test strategy will require a holistic effort across the entire chip-design and -production ecosystem.Pointy tips: How to straighten bent oscilloscope probe tips 5/29/2008
My high-speed-oscilloscope probes were bent so badly that they looked like elf shoes. Here's how I fixed them.Scrape it: How to probe a microstrip trace with no accessible test points or vias 4/28/2008
The lowly scraper is the best tool for the job. Given the right curvature, you can scrape a path just wide enough to reveal a trace under test without exposing other nearby features.External instruments here to stay 3/20/2008
Whatever the interface standard, real external instruments and systems that gather test data and external software that performs yield-learning and other analysis tasks must supplant embedded instruments.Fractal engineering versus synergy 2/27/2008
Even the best efforts of today bring together only the most closely related fractal components of the electrical-engineering profession.DesignIdeas
