Testing

How to optimise digital modulation accuracy in an IQ modulator? Bruce Hemp and Peter Stroet from Linear Technology describe how a vector signal analyser helps optimise EVM performance of the LTC5598 direct quadrature modulator. EVM, or error vector magnitude, is essentially a scalar measurement of digital modulation accuracy, an important figure of merit for any source of digital modulation. Low ...

A large scale control system for fast and accurate switching of 1,800 solenoid valves with millisecond precision is at the heart of an innovative new research tool that has recently been developed by Aircraft Research Association (ARA) in Bedford, writes Tolga Aydemir A wind gust generator at the Aircraft Research Association (ARA) facility in Bedford is the first of its ...

The EU Directive 2013/35/EU on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (the electromagnetic field)  published in mid-2013 is due to be transposed into UK law by July of next year, 2016. Howard Venning, managing director of Aspen Electronics, lifts the lid on the subject and offers help to reach ...

Altera and Yogitech of Italy have come up with a Functional Safety Lockstep for the Nios II embedded processor which they say reduces risk in design cycles and helps system designers simplify certification for industrial and automotive safety applications. The lockstep is built using Altera FPGAs, SoCs, and certified tool flows, along with intellectual property (IP) cores from Yogitech. It ...

Keysight Technologies continues to build its test equipment support services business and it has bought a UK-based repair and asset management services company. The test services business is new focus for Keysight following last year’s separation from Agilent Technologies life sciences businesses. Electroservices Enterprises, which is based in Telford, carries out electrical, mechanical and physical calibration, repair and asset management services ...

Precision cables for testing millimetre-wave systems for 5G research are available from China-based laboratory device company Nanjing Arance Electronics through its UK representative, Aspen Electronics. The low-loss precision test cables are designed for good VSWR and phase/flexure stability up to 67GHz. They are suitable to be used in 5G research labs with high frequency microwave vector network analysers. Research work ...

Keysight Technologies’ latest acquisition, Anite is also now the latest test firm to become a partner in the 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) at the University of Surrey. This is the UK’s largest collaborative research programme into the technology for 5G mobile communications. Keysight paid $600m in cash for Anite, which supplies development software for wireless. It will contribute channel emulation and protocol ...

A team of 10 students studying mechanical and electrical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich are designing and building an electric wheelchair which is able to climb stairs. Moving on the ground is accomplished with a system with automated balancing on the two main wheels. The stairs are climbed using two rubber tracks mounted on ...

National Instruments began its NIWeek technology conference in Austin, Texas today by announcing the latest version of its LabVIEW design and test software. There has been a speed upgrade and new debugging tools. The classic characteristic of LabVIEW is to be able to use new and existing software code across different hardware platforms for design as well as test and ...

There are technical challenges involved with the architecture of the frequency interleaving that has been used to date in gigahertz bandwidth oscilloscopes, writes Dean Miles of Tektronix. Rising data communication rates are driving the need for very high bandwidth real-time oscilloscopes in the range of 60GHz-70GHz. These instruments are essential for validating and debugging new designs in coherent optical modulation ...