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December 2014
Written by Engineers
...for Engineers
S PECIAL R E PORTS
MIL/Aero Test
Vendors build on
Autotest momentum
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The quest for yet
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1
December 2014, Vol. 53, No. 12
C O NT E NT S
AT E
SPECIAL REPORT
MIL/Aero Test
December 2014
Written by Engineers
...for Engineers
14
Vendors build on Autotest momentum
by Rick Nelson, Executive Editor
Executive Insight
25
Emphasizing switching and support
by Rick Nelson, Executive Editor
S PECIAL R E PORTS
MIL/Aero Test
C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T E S T
Vendors build on
Autotest momentum
Spectrum/
Signal Analyzers
2
.
The quest for yet
more bandwidth
SPECIAL REPORT
Spectrum/Signal Analyzers
10
The quest for yet more bandwidth
by Tom Lecklider, Senior Technical Editor
OSCILLOSCOPES
Real-time jitter measurements
CLOUD COMPUTING
I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N
Good enough for government work
Oscilloscopes
www.evaluationengineering.com
20
On Our Cover
EE201412-COVER.indd COVERI
Real-time jitter measurements
by Mike Schnecker and Dave Rishavy,
Rohde & Schwarz
11/7/14 11:25 AM
Designed by NP Communications;
image courtesy of Lockheed Martin
SOFTWARE
Cloud Computing
D E PA R T M E N T S
4
6
24
24
Editorial
EE Industry Update
EE Product Picks
Index of Advertisers
18
Good enough for government work
by Tom Lecklider, Senior Technical Editor
EMC
EMC Test
22
Test and component makers address ESD,
EMI concerns
by Rick Nelson, Executive Editor
MEDICAL TEST
Industry Happenings
Written by Engineers
W
…for Engineers
23
NBMC tackles human performance
monitoring, medical diagnostics
by Rick Nelson, Executive Editor
www.evaluationengineering.com
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3
EDITORIAL
The changing nature
of things under test
4
s electronics technology has evolved toward increasing complexity, so too have
test techniques, and you can expect rapid change as the Internet of Things (IoT)
proliferates. In the age of what Aart de Geus, chairman and co-CEO of Synopsys,
calls “Smart Everything,” we no longer will be able to isolate a “device under test”
(DUT) or even “equipment under test” (EUT)—we will have to evaluate “things under
test” in the context of other, interconnected things under test, and those things, suggested de Geus in a keynote address at the International Test Conference in October
in Seattle, will include humans.
He traced the evolution of semiconductor test, including ATPG and scan testing,
memory BIST (bringing test smarts on-chip), test-vector compression, core-based
IEEE 1500 SoC test, and memory self-repair—which he described as an avant-garde
approach that builds in test as well as a fix.
Of course, testing individual semiconductor devices will continue to be necessary,
and ITC participants exhibited many products for that task. Marvin Test Solutions,
for example, showcased an updated PXI-based semiconductor test system with perpin test capability. On the EDA front, Synopsys introduced two initiatives: defectdetection enhancements in TetraMAX ATPG through slack-based cell-aware test
capability and a new STAR (self-test and repair) Memory System for embedded flash,
which is increasingly deployed in automotive, wearable, IoT, and other applications.
Moving beyond a specific DUT focus, ASSET InterTech highlighted interoperability
between ASSET tools and Mentor Graphics’ Tessent products for the IEEE P1687
Internal JTAG (IJTAG) embedded instrumentation standard. The two companies’
collaboration will allow engineers to debug issues in a complex SoC or within the
context of a circuit board on which the chip has been deployed.
Software, too, is an important part of things under test, and software test for the
21st century was the focus of an ITC keynote address by Patrice Godefroid, a principal researcher at Microsoft. He noted that practical software-test tools are becoming available and described SAGE (Scalable Automated Guided Execution) and its
use in hunting for million-dollar bugs. Software security bugs, he said, can be very
expensive, and it’s important to find these bugs as early as possible.
Sophisticated software and the chips it runs on will open up new opportunities. “If
we can continue to deliver smaller transistors, incredible applications are possible,”
de Geus said in his keynote. He added that video (with its bandwidth demands) is a
gift to our field. So, too, will be the ubiquitous sensors and actuators that make up
“Smart Everything.” There are potential downsides, he said, envisioning a police
report stating, “The perp came in through the toaster.” Let’s hope that software-test
tools are up to finding security bugs in smart appliances.
Soon, de Geus said, humans will be part of the things under test. Of course,
people have long been “under test” in doctors’ offices, for example, and nano-bio
technology is making possible portable and wearable products that can monitor
human health and performance continuously in real time, as I discuss in “NBMC
tackles human performance monitoring, medical diagnostics” on page 23. But in
these cases, electronic and nanomaterial devices are testing biological conditions
and markers. What de Geus is envisioning is the era of the “smart brain,” with the
“thing under test” being not just electronic or biological but a combination of the
two. For example, a paraplegic equipped with sensors that can pick up brain waves
can control an artificial hand. From a test perspective, de Geus said, controllability
and observability apply not just to the electronics, but to the DUT as a whole—and
that includes the human.
Rick Nelson
Executive Editor
Visit my blog: bit.ly/N8rmKm
4 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-Editorial MECH dB.indd 4
http://www.evaluationengineering.com
EDITORIAL
A
.
EVALUATION ENGINEERING
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Rick Nelson
e-mail: rnelson@evaluationengineering.com
MANAGING EDITOR
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e-mail: tlecklider@evaluationengineering.com
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5
EE INDUSTRY UPDATE
University of Oxford signs radio
astronomy project contract
The University of Oxford, a member of the Low Frequency
Aperture Array Consortium, working together with the Square
Kilometre Array organization to build the world’s largest radio
telescope, has signed the second phase of a study contract with
RFEL. This new contract focuses on the design of an FPGAbased signal-processing architecture for beam-forming functions in the antenna processing hardware.
The first phase of the study concentrated on designing a
maximum-performance, minimum-complexity channelizer
for subdividing the radio spectrum. RFEL now is investigating
whether its beam-forming IP, used to image distant sources, can
be combined with the channelizer to further boost performance
and minimize resource usage.
Wearable sensor market to
expand sevenfold in five years
6
.
Driven by rising demand for fitness and health monitoring features as well as by improved user interfaces, shipments of sensors used in wearable electronic devices will rise by a factor of
seven from 2013 through 2019, according to IHS Technology.
The worldwide market for sensors in wearables will expand
to 466 million units in 2019, up from 67 million in 2013.
Shipments of sensors will climb much more quickly than the
market for the wearable devices themselves. Wearable devices
will increase to 135 million units in 2019, less than three times
the total of 50 million in 2013. The average wearable device
shipped in 2019 will incorporate 4.1 sensor elements, up from
1.4 in 2013.
Rohde & Schwarz presents
mm-wave 5G test setup
At the 5G Global Summit held in October in Busan, South
Korea, Rohde & Schwarz presented a compact test setup for
generating and analyzing signals up to 67 GHz. The test setup
consists of the R&S SMW200A high-end vector signal generator, a harmonic mixer from subsidiary Radiometer Physics
GmbH, and the R&S FSW67 high-end signal and spectrum
analyzer. This setup enables users to evaluate potential new
physical air interface technologies for future 5G networks,
helping to drive the development of components, antennas, and
chipsets for future base stations and wireless devices.
IRLYNX and CEA-Leti to
streamline CMOS infrared sensing
IRLYNX and CEA-Leti announced they have launched a
technology-development partnership for a new CMOS-based
infrared technology that will allow a new type of smart and
connected detectors in buildings and cities.
The strategic partnership with Leti’s Silicon Development
Division and the Optics and Photonics Division will develop
a solid technology platform that allows IRLYNX to provide a
solution in the field of human-activity detection and characterization. These products will be able to count people, distinguish
6 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-IndustryUpdate MECH dB.indd 6
humans, get positions, and determine posture. This new, lowcost technology will help IRLYNX bring to the market new
sensors targeting various applications in energy saving, safety
and security, and human/object interactions.
Global EMI/RFI shielding
market to reach $6.6 billion in 2019
BCC Research revealed in its new report “EMI/RFI: Materials and Technologies” that the global market for EMI and RFI
shielding products is expected to grow to $6.6 billion by 2019,
with a five-year CAGR of 4.4%. Higher chip speeds, innovations in electronic displays, and ongoing demand for smaller,
more powerful electronic devices are factors driving the development of novel EMI/RFI shielding materials and technologies.
Commercial-drone market to
reach $1.7 billion in 2025
The market for commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), or drones, will grow to $1.7 billion in 2025, driven
by a broad range of applications led by agriculture, according
to Lux Research.
Advanced sensors that are at the heart of the drones will claim
a large chunk of the UAV cost stack, accounting for $670 million, nearly 40% of the overall pie. However, regulation remains
the single biggest hurdle for commercial adoption.
Nobel laureate advises Aledia
on LED technology
Prof. Hiroshi Amano, a member of Aledia’s Scientific Advisory Board, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside
Shuji Nakamura and Isamu Akasaki for their roles in inventing
the blue LED that has revolutionized the lighting and display
worlds. Prof. Amano received the news while working with
Aledia’s technical team in Grenoble, where Aledia is based.
In a speech to a large gathering of scientists after the winners
were announced, Prof. Amano pointed out the huge impact on
energy savings that will be made possible by LEDs, as well as
the bright future of LED technology.
Moderate growth predicted
for North American PCB industry
The North American printed-circuit-board (PCB) market saw
a moderate decline in 2013, but moderate growth is forecasted
through 2017, according to IPC’s “2013-2014 Analysis and
Forecast for the PCB Industry in North America.”
Other key findings include data showing that on-shore PCB
production increased slightly in 2013, despite the slight decline in the market. Among PCB product types, HDI/microvia
boards experienced the highest growth rate in 2013. Data on
vertical markets for PCBs shows that communications and
military/aerospace are the two largest PCB markets in North
America, together accounting for approximately 57% of the
North American PCB market in 2013. Among the business
metrics shown in the report, it is a positive indicator that R&D
spending projections are up substantially for 2014.
www.evaluationengineering.com
11/7/14 4:56 PM
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9
SPECIAL REPORT - SPECTRUM/SIGNAL ANALYZERS
The quest for
yet more bandwidth
by Tom Lecklider, Senior Technical Editor
10
.
Most RF and microwave analyzers have a superheterodyne
architecture that down-converts the input signal to a lower IF,
generally using several IF stages at different frequencies. Digital
technology takes over following the last IF stage, providing conversion to the frequency domain, filtering, and error correction.
Jason Chonko, applications engineer at Rigol Technologies
said, “The Rigol DSA series of spectrum analyzers utilizes a
design that incorporates a high first IF and a triple conversion.
The traditional superheterodyne design provides a low displayed
average noise level (DANL), great selectivity, and stability over
time.”
GW Instek’s Jack Hau, product line marketing manager for
spectrum analyzers and signal sources at the company, described
the 3-GHz GSP-9300 as a swept-tuned spectrum analyzer that also
used the superheterodyne receiver structure. The IF is digitally
processed and the result shown on the LCD display to reveal the
relation between signal frequency and amplitude.
A Keysight Technologies application note describes a 3.6GHz analyzer design with three IF stages at 5.1225 GHz, 322.5
MHz, and 22.5 MHz, as shown in Figure 1.1 Similarly, Anritsu’s
discontinued 8-GHz MS278xA Signature signal analyzer used
three IF stages at 9.5 GHz, 1.1 GHz, and 75 MHz.
The operation manual for the Signature analyzer stated, “In
the third mixer, the signal is converted to 75 MHz. While the
system’s bandwidth up to this point has been maintained at
greater than 100 MHz, the signal path is now routed to either a
wideband 75-MHz IF section, used exclusively for vector signal
analysis, or to a lower bandwidth 10.7-MHz IF section, used for
spectrum analysis and low-bandwidth signal analysis. While there
are prefilters in the RF/analog section, the task of shaping the IF
bandwidth is left mainly to the digital section, where advanced
DSP technology can be used.”2
From Keysight’s new N9040B UXA X-Series signal analyzer
data sheet, you can determine that the local oscillator’s (LO)
3.75-GHz to 14.0-GHz range is multiplied 1x, 2x, or 4x for the
various models: 1x for both 3 Hz to 3.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz to 8.4
GHz, 2x for 8.3 GHz to 13.6 GHz and 13.5 GHz to 17.1 GHz,
and 4x for the highest 17.0 to 26.5 GHz range.
Also, because signal bandwidth has become so important,
multiple IF input frequencies are listed corresponding to progressively higher signal bandwidths: 322.5 MHz for the narrowband
IF path, 250.0 MHz for the 40-MHz bandwidth path, 750 MHz
for the 255-MHz bandwidth path, and 877.1 MHz for the 510MHz very wide bandwidth path. Obviously, this analyzer is
more complicated than the example shown in Figure 2; however,
the operation of the analog mixer stages with their associated
bandpass filters follows the same principles, and a wide-range,
high-frequency LO, similar to that in the Signature instruments,
is being used by several manufacturers.
Operating a mixer with a zero-IF is called a homodyne or
synchrodyne front end in contrast to a superheterodyne system
in which a finite IF frequency separates the signal and LO inputs.
The National Instruments PXIe-5644R-5646R range of vector
signal transceivers uses a homodyne architecture, which the
company also refers to as direct conversion.
As explained by NI’s Brian Avenell, chief RF hardware engineer, “Direct conversion down-converts the RF signal directly to
baseband, splitting the baseband into [its] in-phase and quadraturephase components. Each of these baseband signals is digitized
separately, so for a given digitizer sample rate, the instantaneous
measurement bandwidth is twice the superheterodyne structure
that employs only a single-channel digitizer.
“Simplicity in design translates to a more compact-sized product,” Avenell continued. “Because direct conversion uses only a
single LO signal, sharing of LOs for multichannel, phase-coherent
applications is inherently a simpler solution than [with] multiple
conversion superheterodyne architectures,” he concluded.
The homodyne approach also has some drawbacks, most
notably problems around DC. Because a signal exactly equal to
the LO mixes down to DC, any DC offsets look like a signal in
Figure 1. Typical three-stage Superheterodyne architecture
Courtesy of Keysight Technologies
10 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-SpecRep-SpectrumAnalyzers MECH GH.indd 10
www.evaluationengineering.com
11/10/14 1:30 PM
the center of the instantaneous bandwidth. This becomes an even
larger issue when successive acquisitions, each with a different
DC aberration, are stitched together to achieve a wider span.
NI solves the problem by applying equal and opposite offsets
that were recorded during a previous self-calibration procedure.
Superheterodyne analyzers
IF frequency selection
Typically, the first IF is positioned above the highest frequency
in the basic input range: 5.1225 GHz for a 3.6-GHz upper input
frequency in the Keysight 3.6-GHz example and 9.5 GHz for
Anritsu’s 8-GHz Signature analyzer. In both cases, only the
(LO - signal) mixer output matches the IF.
Ideally, only a low-pass filter is needed to restrict the input
range to avoid converting signals above 8 GHz in the Signature
analyzer or 3.6 GHz for the Keysight example. The more difficult
constraint on the filter is that it should have minimal effect at
the highest input frequency but significant attenuation at the IF
frequency less than an octave away.
With the first IF higher than the highest frequency input
signal, there’s no problem, but what about subsequent mixer
stages? The output from the first mixer in the Keysight example
ranges from 3.8 GHz to 12.3 GHz using Keysight’s figures. A
bandpass filter following the mixer limits this range to 5.1 GHz
±Δ, where 2Δ is the bandwidth of the filter. Without the filter,
the 4.8-GHz second LO could mix with first stage frequencies
around 4.5 GHz (rather than the intended 5.1 GHz) to produce
a 322-MHz output. Similarly, the bandpass filter following the
second mixer must block frequencies below about 300 MHz to
avoid unintended mixing from the third LO.
The bandwidth available at the output of the final-stage bandpass filter is the value that compares with 802.11ac’s 160 MHz
or your application’s requirements. It’s at the final stage that
the output is digitized and DSP techniques can be applied, for
example, to implement resolution bandwidth (RBW) filtering
and apply various correction factors.
Anritsu’s Eric Hakanson, a senior product manager, discussed
the company’s handheld analyzer designs, “Instead of a swept
LO, this architecture uses a fully synthesized LO, controlled by
a DSP processor…. To save cost [and] improve phase noise…
the frequency resolution of the LO is distributed among multiple
stages. The first LO has relatively coarse resolution of approximately 100 kHz, and the second LO has finer resolution of <10
kHz. Spur avoidance… also is possible with this scheme.”
What happens if an IF is chosen that is lower and considerably smaller than the band of frequencies to be converted? The
Keysight example addresses input signal frequencies above 3.6
GHz with an IF at 322.5 MHz. Because the LO range is as large
as the input frequency band, and the values are much greater
than 322.5-MHz, both (signal - LO) and (LO - signal) mixer
outputs are generated. The solution is to add a preselection filter
ahead of the mixer.
Preselection
For high-frequency analyzers operating with a relatively lowfrequency IF, a preselection input filter tracks the LO. The filter
is offset from the LO by the value of the IF center frequency
and only allows signals within its bandwidth to be presented to
the mixer. The preselector typically is based on YIG technology
and has a bandwidth of about 50 MHz—significantly less than
www.evaluationengineering.com
EE201412-SpecRep-SpectrumAnalyzers MECH GH.indd 11
the IF. This means that the upper or lower mixer output can
match the IF frequency, but not both, which eliminates images.
A high-frequency analyzer can be operated without a preselector if the input signal is well controlled so that images can be
identified and ignored.
Switched preselection filters provide a similar function to
a YIG filter but add their own advantages and complications.
Although a YIG filter has limited accuracy, adds noise, and
changes bandwidth with center frequency, it tracks the LO
over a wide tuning range. In contrast, switched preselection
filters typically have fixed suboctave ranges, and a number of
them are needed to cover a large frequency range. Nevertheless, switched filters not only allow images to be avoided, but
also support the very large signal bandwidths necessary today.
The Tektronix Component Solutions group has developed the
TSFB-900A switched filter bank that covers 8.0 GHz to 22.0
GHz in nine channels. NI’s PXIe-5693 has 13 filters ranging
from 20 MHz to 7 GHz. Architectures with multiple mixers
and a wide-range LO can take advantage of filters like these.
Because the filter passbands are relatively narrow, and you
have control of the LO range, images are easy to avoid. If a
5-GHz IF is assumed, then Table 1 shows the LO ranges needed
to provide the (signal - LO) mixer output when working with
the first four Tektronix filters. Higher bands can be addressed
by doubling the LO frequency as done in Keysight’s UXA
analyzer or in NI’s PXIe-6505 downconverter.
Signal (GHz)
LO Range (GHz)
Low
High
Low
High
7.18
10.38
2.18
5.38
8.35
12.55
3.35
7.55
10.32
14.12
5.32
9.12
12.04
15.44
7.04
10.44
Table 1. LO frequencies for use with Tektronix TSFB-900A and 5-GHz IF
Tek has implemented switched filters in the company’s
RSA5000 and RSA6000 Series of real-time spectrum analyzers (RTSAs). Matt Maxwell, product manager for Tektronix
RTSAs, explained, “When doing over-the-air monitoring, either
for regulatory work or electronic warfare, it is important to
know whether the signals you are looking at… are coming over
the air or being generated within the analyzer. Other spectrum
analyzers would bypass the YIG preselector when doing work
above 3.6 GHz or even 8 GHz, depending on the manufacturer.
The RSA5000 Series always uses the image-free architecture,
so you can have confidence that you are not looking at ‘ghost’
signals generated inside the IF of the analyzer.”
Anritsu’s Hakanson added size, weight, and power savings
to the list of reasons for not using a YIG preselector. He explained, “The output of the switched filter bank may go to one of
several different mixers. This architecture allows using mixers
optimized for different frequency ranges, rather than requiring
one very expensive mixer that covers all frequencies. This is
a natural combination with the switched filter bank, as there
is already a switch there, which also can be used to direct the
signal to a specific mixer. Note that there is not a one-to-one
match between bands and mixers—several bands may use one
mixer, for example.”
December 2014 • EE • 11
11/10/14 1:28 PM
.
11
SPECIAL REPORT - SPECTRUM/SIGNAL ANALYZERS
FFT
12
.
Darren McCarthy, aerospace and defense technical marketing
manager at Rohde & Schwarz, commented, “Most of the innovation and advantages of modern signal analysis have been built on
the FFT-based receiver/signal analyzer. One recent advancement
has been the real-time persistence display that enables users to see
very fast changes to signals in the frequency domain.”
Anritsu’s Patrick Weisgarber, business development manager,
discussed a related advantage of FFT techniques. A fundamental
flaw in traditional swept-tuned analyzers is that they necessarily
miss activity in one part of the spectrum while sweeping another
part. In contrast, he said, “Advanced FFT technology… allows
the Anritsu signal analyzers to see signal behavior in the time
domain that is missed by a sweep-type spectrum analyzer that
relies solely on the frequency domain.”
Initially, FFT-based filters were introduced as a way to achieve
shorter sweep times when using narrow RBW IF filters. Traditional
analog filter components such as capacitors and inductors store
energy and have high values at low RBWs. This means that narrow
RBW analog filters can’t be swept quickly without distorting the
signal being measured. The solution is to implement these filters
digitally via FFT techniques.
Rigol’s Chonko said that the company’s DSA series of spectrum
analyzers uses a fully digital IF section, which “…has allowed us
to create an EMI-specific design…. In addition, there is a firmware
upgrade option that alters the normal 3-dB filter shape to a 6-dB
RBW filter shape typically used in EMI applications, [and adds] a
quasi-peak detector… FCC RBW bandwidths of 200 Hz, 9 kHz,
and 120 kHz as well as pass/fail limit lines.”
McCarthy at R&S explained that three types of the company’s
instruments were based on FFT techniques: signal and spectrum
analyzers, EMI test receivers, and monitoring receivers. EMI
receivers in particular have features not necessarily found in
general-purpose analyzers. He listed the following:
• additional RF overload detection to warn users if the measurement signal may be compressing the receiver RF mixing stages (a
typical spectrum analyzer may only have IF overload detection and
be blind to front-end RF overload);
• additional and predefined banks of preselection filters enabling
standards-based pulse-protected inputs;
• displays and functions such as log frequency, limit lines, transducer
factors, and marker functions;
• product-specific testing standards (medical devices, ISM equipment, computers, etc); and
• display functions to aid in the debug of EMI emissions such as
real-time persistence display and spectrogram.
For Tek’s RSA6100, “The RBW shape is achieved by applying an optimized window function to the time-domain signals
before performing a Fourier transform. RBWs are specified by
their 3-dB bandwidth and 60-dB: 3-dB shape factor, in the same
fashion as an analog implementation. In general, the shape factor
of the digitally implemented filter is lower (sharper) than an analog implementation, yielding easier resolution of closely spaced
signals of widely different amplitudes.”3
In contrast, reference 3 also describes Tek’s RSA3000 Series
RTSA. “In spectrum mode, the result of a windowed FFT is
convolved with a RBW shape to yield spectrum traces with a
specified RBW, similar to an analog spectrum analyzer. This
process yields a slightly wider shape factor of approximately 5:1,
compared to 4.1:1 for the RSA6100.”
12 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-SpecRep-SpectrumAnalyzers MECH GH.indd 12
Windowing is required before performing a Fourier transform
because the discrete Fourier transform assumes a periodic function. In general, acquired data is not periodic, and even if it were,
the acquired data may not represent an integer number of cycles.
Windowing in the time domain smoothly reduces the value of the
first and last data points to zero, forcing periodicity and eliminating
the spectral leakage that otherwise would result.
Unconventional techniques
Signal Hound’s CEO Bruce Devine explained that, by minimizing the amount of RF hardware and concentrating on innovative
software algorithms, his company’s USB-powered PC-based
spectrum analyzers provide good performance while remaining
very economical. He said, “For our economy USB-SA Series,
we use single-conversion superheterodyne receiver architecture with dual IFs…. We use a software-based algorithm that
combines two traces from two unique combinations of LO and
IFs and mask them together to produce the final, image-rejected
trace. This works well for narrowband signals.”
A similar two-measurement enhanced digital image rejection technique was described by Keysight’s John Stratton at
this year’s Autotest conference. For the approach to work well
on quickly changing signals, a fast-settling LO and switching are required to capture the signal twice before it changes
significantly.4
Further Considerations
Although many spectrum/signal analyzers are available, there also
is a long list of parameters against which they can be compared.
Do you need a real-time analyzer? What are the advantages of a
dedicated real-time instrument vs. an analyzer that offers an optional real-time mode in addition to its conventional swept-tuned
operation? And, how high a frequency do you need to work with?
These are just some of the questions you need to answer
before getting into the very detailed specifications available for
professional-grade analyzers. FFT techniques have greatly improved performance but also have contributed to complexity in
today’s mix of swept-tuned, real-time, and hybrid instruments.
References
1. Spectrum Analysis Basics, Keysight Technologies, Application Note 150, Publication 5952-0292, August 2014.
2. Series MS278XA High Performance Signal Analyzer Operation Manual, Anritsu, P/N 10410-00252, Revision C, April 2006.
3. Real Time Spectrum Analyzer Fundamentals, Tektronix,
2009, p. 24.
4. Stratton, J., “Possible alternatives to overcoming speed
limitations using synthetic instruments signal analysis architecture,” Autotest Proceedings, 2014, pp.150-152.
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www.evaluationengineering.com
11/10/14 1:28 PM
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EE201412-AD Pickering.indd 13
11/7/14 4:11 PM
13
Sponsored by
SPECIAL REPORT - MIL/AERO TEST
Vendors build on
Autotest momentum
by Rick Nelson, Executive Editor
14
.
The military/aerospace (MIL/Aero) arena faces many test
challenges as engineers design, maintain, and service defense
systems. Test requirements extend from development through
manufacturing and field deployment, with ongoing requirements
for sustainment and maintenance at the depot and flightline levels.
In addition, MIL/aero test engineers often must contend with
legacy test systems that are in need of upgrade or replacement.
To help meet these challenges, test products ranging from USB
modules to full rack-mount automated systems are emerging.
The types of equipment the MIL/Aero community can rely on
include modular instruments (such as PXI and AXIe) that can
be configured into synthetic instrument systems, benchtop and
rack-mount instruments, and complete instrument packages
ready for field deployment.
Autotest 2014, held in September in St. Louis, offered a venue
for companies to highlight new and current offerings, and some
exhibitors have followed the event with additional instruments,
systems, and software with MIL/Aero test applicability.
Keysight Technologies, for example, highlighted signal
generator and analyzer products, including the new M9290A
CXA-m PXIe signal analyzer, which delivers fully specified
performance up to 26.5 GHz. And after the show, the company
announced the new flagship of its X-Series: the N9040B UXA
signal analyzer. The UXA features 510-MHz analysis and realtime bandwidths, a large display, and a touch-driven interface
to provide wider, deeper views of elusive wideband signals—
known or unknown. In addition, the company debuted its UXG
agile signal generator, an off-the-shelf instrument that enables
highly realistic and scalable threat simulations for aerospace/
defense applications. The UXG also is a dependable slide-in
replacement for the legacy fast-switching local oscillators often
used in large, dedicated simulation systems.
Universal Switching at Autotest highlighted its programmable
switching equipment, which covers DC to 40 GHz and supports
ATE instrumentation. The company followed up after the show
with the introduction of its RouteWarePRO 4.0 software, which
delivers the system engineer a solid control platform with USC
factory support. Features include auto discovery, on-the-fly
channel naming, and robust control and monitoring of USC
products. The company offers a free 30-day trial period.
RouteWarePRO 4.0 delivers a comprehensive and robust
control and monitoring application that simplifies automation
of Universal Switching products. Version 4.0 contains features
and improvements that have been driven by both client requests
and planned USC hardware/software improvements. It’s been
updated for Windows 8.1, 8, and 7.
New products at Autotest
ADLINK Technology highlighted its PXI product line at Autotest and chose the event to announce the release of its new
14 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-SpecRep-MIL/Aero MECH GH.indd 14
PCIe-PXIe-8638 high-performance remote controller (Figure
1), enabling remote control of any PXIe system directly via PC.
Bandwidth up to 4 GB/s is available through PCIe Gen 2 x8 link
capability. With the PCIe-PXIe-8638, processor performance is
maximized for an industrial PC, server, or workstation, delivering
dependable remote control of the PXI/PXIe system with reduced
hybrid test application costs.
Figure 1. PCIe-PXIe-8638 PXIe remote controller
Courtesy of ADLINK Technology
“In complicated hybrid test systems, a high-performance
server or workstation is conventionally deployed as the host
PC to control all test equipment simultaneously,” explained
Catherine Wu, senior director of ADLINK’s Measurement and
Automation Product Segment. “PXI systems often have been
used in hybrid systems for data acquisition. The new release
of ADLINK’s PCIe-PXIe-8638 means efficient remote control
of PXIe systems is available through an existing host PC, with
no extra expense required for additional embedded control.”
Pacific Power Source announced at Autotest the release of
its latest suite of test routines specifically designed to test AC
products for compliance with Department of Defense interface
standard MIL-STD-1399-300, “Aircraft Electric Power Characteristics.” This new software option expands the company’s
portfolio of defense-related power compliance test options.
MIL-STD 1399-300 applies to all shipboard AC power systems. First published in 1978, it has undergone several changes
culminating in its current revision B.
Available as an integrated option package running within the
Pacific Power Source UPC Studio Windows control program, the
Pacific Power Source MIL-STD-1399-300B option supports the
latest revision B test sequences for all AC power groups. Power
groups include single- and three-phase, fixed 400-Hz frequency,
and single- and three-phase 60-Hz power-group test sequences.
As an integral part of the UPC Studio software, the MIL-STD1399-300B test option is available for both the linear AMX Series AC Power Sources (Figure 2) as well as the Switching ASX
Series AC Power Sources. For high-power testing requirements,
the 3060-MS Series AC Power source provides the required
www.evaluationengineering.com
11/10/14 10:51 AM
high-current capability. Herman
van Eijkelenburg,
director of marketing for Pacific
Power Source,
said, “This new
addition to ourr
2. Linear 360-AMX AC power source
defense-related Figure
Courtesy of Pacific Power Source
power compliance test offerings allows our customers to get additional use
and value from their AC power source investment and saves
them a considerable amount of setup and programming time
when performing these compliance tests.”
Aeroflex chose Autotest to announce a 26.5-GHz highfrequency extension for the 7700 integrated microwave test
system. The 7700 frequency extension increases the coverage
from 6 GHz to 26.5 GHz, which will address the growing
need for a compact, economical, high-frequency benchtop
microwave test system.
“Our customers have consistently requested an extendedfrequency version of the 7700 system. This new product capability will provide our customers with the frequency range they
requested as well as the same Aeroflex measurement quality
they have trusted for more than 15 years,” said Keith Johns,
product marketing manager for Aeroflex.
Dan Walsh, marketing manager for Teradyne’s defense and
aerospace division, previewed a new addition to the Spectrum
series of functional testers in our September issue,1 and indeed
at Autotest the company formally introduced the Spectrum HS
functional test system, which is designed around Teradyne’s
High Speed Subsystem (HSSub). The Spectrum HS is aimed
at circuit boards, assemblies, and boxes requiring digital-bus,
mixed-signal, or real-time test. Walsh called the HS “…the first
Spectrum system centered on PXI-based instrumentation, which
is rapidly emerging as a preferred means to address current
and future analog and digital functional test requirements.”
New switching modules
Pickering Interfaces launched four new switching modules
at Autotest 2014. These products include a new PXI signalinsertion and monitor matrix and updates to the company’s PXI
microwave multiplexers, PXI high-density large matrix BRIC
range, and PXI fault-insertion switches.
“Test engineers continue to request more choices, higher
density, and additional features in switching,” noted Keith
Moore, managing director at Pickering Interfaces. “We consistently invest heavily in R&D to provide the right amount of
switching to meet our customers’ needs—we have introduced
more than 20 new and updated LXI, PCI, and PXI switching
products in the last year alone.”
The new PXI signal-insertion and monitor matrix (40-525A)
is a 34 x 4 matrix with both switched and direct connection
paths to the X and Y axes. This matrix permits test signals to
pass through the switched X axis to the UUT on the direct X
connection, the switch allowing each through path to be opened
to disconnect the stimulus signal. The direct Y axis to the matrix allows the user to monitor the signals with test equipment,
such as an oscilloscope or DMM, the matrix enabling the test
www.evaluationengineering.com
EE201412-SpecRep-MIL/Aero MECH GH.indd 15
equipment to connect to any of the 34 through connections.
The switched Y connections can be used to inject alternative
test signals into the UUT or to apply faults to the through
connection such as shorts to ground or to a supply voltage.
The PXI Large Matrix BRIC Update (40-565B) offers
20% density improvement over previous models. These highdensity large matrix modules are able to switch up to 2 A at
200 VDC/140 VAC. These PXI matrix BRIC modules are
available in two-, four-, or eight-slot PXI sizes and allow a
complete functional ATE system to be housed in a single 3U
PXI chassis. Also available on these matrix modules is Pickering’s Built-In-Relay-Self-Test tool, which provides a way of
finding relay failures within the BRIC module.
The updated PXI Microwave Multiplexer (40-785B) now
features LED indicators to aid in test-system development and
debugging. These are single or dual six-channel multiplexers
with relays mounted on the front panel. These multiplexers are
designed for switching 50-Ω signals up to 40 GHz. The single-slot
version can support up to three remotely mounted multiplexers.
And finally, the 40-785B microwave multiplexer range is compatible with any PXI chassis and can be fitted to PXI hybrid slots
in a PXIe chassis. It also can be used in Pickering interfaces LXI
modular chassis’ for users preferring control via an Ethernet port.
Emphasizing the PXI platform
On the Autotest exhibit floor, Marvin Test Solutions highlighted
its complete product lineup, extending from a semiconductor
production test system to a universal flightline test set. Specific
products on display included the SmartCan Universal Flightline
Test Set, the MTS-207 MIL-SPECCOTS ruggedized test platform,
and the TS-900 semiconductor
test system.
A particular focus for Marvin Test Solutions at the show
was the company’s PXI-based
GENASYS test platform (Figure 3). Mike Dewey, director
of marketing, presented a paper
on the technology underlying
GENASYS, focusing on legacy
ATE system requirements with
PXI. “Long product life cycles
require on-going test support for
products produced 10 and even
20 years ago,” he said. “Replacement test systems need to address
current and future test needs.”
A modular, industry-standardarchitecture PXI-based platform,
Dewey said, provides flexibility
and performance in a compact
footprint, with a wide selection
of vendors offering a variety
of products. “A PXI-based architecture offers a performance
Figure 3. TS-323 GENASYS
functional test solution for both
test system
future and legacy test needs,”
C
t
i
Courtesy
off M
Marvin
he concluded.
Test Solutions
December 2014 • EE • 15
11/10/14 10:51 AM
.
15
Sponsored by
SPECIAL REPORT - MIL/AERO TEST
A tour of the exhibit hall
16
.
Power supply exhibitors in addition to Pacific Power Source
included Kepco with its KLN 750-W series 1U half-rack supplies and TDK-Lambda with its Genesys Series programmable
AC/DC sources, which offer up to 2,400 W in a 1U platform.
Bloomy Controls at the Draper Laboratory booth presented
its UTS functional test system, which it had used in conjunction
with Draper to test MEMS devices. ELMA exhibited its test
and development chassis platforms. Wireless Telecom Group
displayed relevant products carrying the Boonton, Microlab,
and Noisecom brands, such as the Boonton 55 Series wideband
USB power sensors.
Huntron, a provider of unpowered circuit-card-assembly
diagnostics and a supplier for the USN Gold Disk (2M/MTR)
program, showcased its dual-head Access DH Robotic Prober,
noncontact automated EME Diagnostics, and the Huntron
Tracker power-off diagnostics system.
Focusing on RF/microwave, RADX Technologies demonstrated its LibertyGT 1211B software-defined synthetic
instrument—a modular COTS system for real-time RF/microwave and wireless communications stimulus and measurement.
It supports applications from DC to 3 GHz or 6 GHz with
upgradeability to 26.5 GHz. Giga-tronics presented a line of
RF switches and hosted a multivendor AXIe-based radar test
system, which included an AXIe-1-based ADC6131 Waveform
Digitizer Acquisition and Processing Module from Guzik.
Rohde & Schwarz featured instruments such as the ZVA
vector network analyzer and also emphasized legacy upgrades
with signal generators and spectrum and network analyzers that
understand the existing code written for a legacy test system.
Copper Mountain Technologies highlighted its line of USB
A walk around the floor showed companies made good on predictions in our September issue regarding what they would exhibit.
Yokogawa displayed its ScopeCorder data-acquisition product
line as well as its power analyzers, digital oscilloscopes, optical
spectrum analyzers, and optical time domain reflectometers. VTI
Instruments featured turnkey systems (hardware/software) for
mechanical test as well as PXIe and LXI switching products. UEI
demonstrated its COTS products in military-standard-compliant
connector-based DNR-MIL and DNA-MIL chassis. Astronics
presented its T940 Freedom digital test products as well as radio
testers, wire-integrity testers, and integrated test systems.
JTAG Technologies showed a JTAG/boundary-scan hardware
interface product compatible with the Virginia Panel Corp.
(VPC) mass-interconnect system. The JT 2147/VPC is a signal
conditioning module that allows ideal-world connections from
JTAG Technologies’ PXI and PXIe DataBlasters to the VPC
connection system. Based on JTAG’s QuadPod architecture,
the JT 2147/VPC has been specifically designed for connection
into G20x or G14x 192-pin QuadraPaddle connectors and is
compatible with the VPC “pull thru” system.
MAC Panel showed its new high-performance connector,
APEX, which addresses customers’ demands for ever increasing
signal integrity, reliability, and ruggedness. Dewetron highlighted its data-acquisition instruments that accept inputs from
sensors that measure strain, acceleration, temperature, force,
and other parameters, with an emphasis on its SYNC CLOCK
technology. Diagnosys exhibited its range of PinPoint functional
diagnostic and test systems. And In-Phase Technologies featured
examples of its single- and multibay ATE systems.
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EE201412-SpecRep-MIL/Aero MECH dB.indd 16
11/10/14 12:12 PM
vector network analyzers and refl ectometers. Instruments
range from the full-size 19-inch Planar 804/1 VNA, which
operates from 100 kHz to 8 GHz, down to the compact Planar
R54 and Planar R140 refl ectometers. The R140 measures
s11 to 14 GHz. Dow-Key Microwave, a maker of products
that direct RF energy, showcased its new Reliant Switch and
other products including RF coaxial switches operating up to
40 GHz. And Averna highlighted its test solutions for radios
and communications devices, fl ight controls and avionics
equipment, and radar.
In addition, Ridgetop Group presented its Expert Troubleshooting & Repair System, which helps isolate faults that are
not easily reproducible at the depot. The company also featured
its CPT1000 cable power test system and its Sentinel Suite
tools, which offer prognostic health management, conditionbased maintenance, and integrated vehicle health management.
And finally, although National Instruments did not exhibit
at the show, Bill Driver, senior marketing manager, was on
hand to discuss his company’s approach to synthetic instruments with an emphasis on software-defined instruments.
Reference
1. Nelson, R., “Autotest spans legacy replacement to new systems,” EE-Evaluation Engineering, September 2014, pp. 14-20.
For more information
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.
17
CLOUD COMPUTING
Good enough for government work
by Tom Lecklider, Senior Technical Editor
C
18
.
loud computing, as one refersecurity along with system uptime can
ence put it, is just another term
deploy a private cloud.” This is exactly
for accessing services via the
what the DoD has done.
Internet. For small companies that may be
In the department’s July 2012 Cloud
true, but larger companies and government
Computing Strategy document, the stateagencies are establishing their own private
ment is made, “The DoD Enterprise Cloud
cloud capabilities, so the comment should
Environment will include separate impleinclude these specific intranets as well.
mentations and data exchanges on nonWhether public or private, the reasons for
secure Internet protocol router network
adopting cloud computing center around
(NIPRNet), secure internet protocol router
improvements to efficiency and cost.
network (SIPRNet), and top secret sensiAt the very large end of the
scale, the U.S. Department of
Defense (DoD) is establishing
an overall cloud structure that
will consolidate its many separate computing facilities into a
smaller number of networked
core centers. A set of common
applications will further streamline operations by reducing duplication.
In adopting the cloud paradigm, a bit of paranoia might be
expected in organizations that traditionally have acquired, stored,
and protected their own data, but
how real is the perceived threat?
Apparently, it’s very real, judging from a recent FBI briefing
to businessmen. “‘You’re going
to be hacked,’ Joseph Demarest,
assistant director of the FBI’s Four characteristics of companies providing cloud-based
cyberdivision, told the business infrastructure as a service
leaders. ‘Have a plan,’ he ad- Courtesy of Gartner
tive compartmentalized information (TS
vised.”1
A report on the 2014 CSA Congress and
SCI) security domains.” One assumes that
IAPP Privacy Academy events had a simiwithin the TS SCI, for example, 100% of
lar message, stating, “Cloud data breaches
the data is critical.
are inevitable… better data identification
The Defense Information Systems
and classification [are needed] so that
Agency (DISA) manages the DoD’s cloud
enterprises can concentrate their efforts
program and provides the infrastructure-ason securing the data that matters most.”
a-service milCloud as part of the program.
According to the report, 10% to 20% of
As recently reported, Maj. Gen. Alan Lynn,
the total data typically may be critical.2
DISA vice director, said, “If industry can
How should an organization make this
come to us with a cloud solution that is
determination for a large amount of test
cheaper [than milCloud], then we are going
data that cannot be duplicated—perhaps
to do it. That’s the bottom line. And there
data that was acquired as a space probe
are some things that we’re never going
crashed into an asteroid? National Instruto put into a commercial cloud that we’ll
ments’ Automated Test Outlook 2014
need the milCloud for. So, we’re going to
report suggests, “Organizations that are
be able to live side by side with industry
concerned about software IP and data
in the cloud in the future.”3
18 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-CloudComputing MECH dB.indd 18
Reference 3 further quotes Lynn as saying, “…budgets are drying up,” and as a
consequence, DISA is running a small pilot
project to determine just how viable and
less expensive commercial cloud services
may be—in effect, how wide the milCloudto-commercial cloud link can be made.
To that end, “DISA recently gave Amazon Web Services provisional authorization to operate at security impact levels 3
to 5 of the DoD Cloud Security Model,
which would allow Defense Department components to use those cloud
solutions for sensitive information
falling under those levels.”3
Availability
High-value data that you cannot
afford to lose is best protected
by storing duplicate copies in
physically separate locations. Many
companies store periodic computer
backups at multiple sites to ensure
that should something catastrophic
occur, the computer system state can
be restored with minimal disruption.
Interestingly, the Amazon Web
Services (AWS) organization takes
the same approach. As explained in
a Forrester Research white paper,
“AWS data centers located in North
America, Europe, Latin America,
and Asia compose tier one of the
AWS infrastructure. Each geographic region has from one to five
availability zones (AZs). AWS AZs make
up the second tier of the AWS infrastructure. Each AZ is made up of one or more
data centers. These are physically located
in separate buildings on separate power
grids, in separate environmental disaster
zones, with distinct network access points
and separate electrical generator support.”4
As shown in the figure, many companies
offer cloud-based infrastructure services,
although by Gartner’s definitions and
analysis, AWS is the leader.5 Geographical considerations similar to those AWS
used as well as DoD-specific issues resulted in the selection of Montgomery,
AL; Mechanicsburg, PA; Columbus,
OH; St. Louis, MO; Warner Robins, GA;
Oklahoma City, OK; San Antonio, TX;
www.evaluationengineering.com
11/10/14 11:07 AM
MEASUREMENT COMPUTING
and Ogden, UT, as locations for the eight
Defense Enterprise Computing Centers
that DISA manages. Clearly, the level of
consolidation is high given that previously
the DoD operated at least 200 separate
centers.6
The Army also is undergoing data
center reduction, “…to eliminate 185 of
its data centers by the end of 2015, according to Col. Chris Miller, chief of Army
Data Center Consolidation at the Army
CIO.” As part of the process, MicroTech
is creating ruggedized, man-transportable
portable cloud centers that can quickly
be dropped into combat zones. Similar
versions of the company’s MicroKloud
product line are being used by the FBI and
FEMA to provide highly versatile computing power in disaster recovery zones
and domestic emergency scenes. Ideally,
Army personnel would have cloud access
anywhere in the world.
The primary resources that the Army
accesses will be provided by the DoD’s
own data centers. “Specialized needs will
be handled by private sector contractors,
or as a last resort, Army-owned data
centers,” the article quoted Col. Miller
as saying.7
In an article written about 18 months
after reference 7, operational practicalities have dampened some of the earlier
cost-saving exuberance. “… data center
consolidation is on track… [with] a selfimposed target of 60% reduction by the
close of fiscal 2018…said Neal Shelley,
the Army Data Center Consolidation
Plan lead.” As Shelley explained, additional attention was being placed on
operational needs.
“‘In our business, light-speed matters,’
Shelley said. ‘There are things you cannot
do remotely. The response time is not
sufficient or it is so critical that you cannot have that application running several
miles distant. So there will continue to be
data processing going on at posts, camps,
and stations.’”8
And, according to Gunnar Hellekson,
chief technology strategist of the public
sector division at open-source developer
Red Hat, “‘When you have a war fighter
who needs a mapping data service, for
example, being able to deliver that over
a cloud service becomes a completely
different situation’ versus having a local server…. ‘You have to have a large
amount of bandwidth, you have to have
redundancy, while on the operational
end you may have someone with just an
intermittent satellite connection.’”8
Great Products
Great Prices
Great Support
Security
Will the new Army and DoD computing
infrastructures be more or less secure than
the previous ones? The answer involves
many pros and cons but centers on the
increased importance of “…data encryption, security checks, granting access to
data based on different security levels,
intrusion-prevention systems, and event
correlation,” according to Alexandru
Caitlin Cosoi, chief security officer at
BitDefender.7
Encryption will be discussed in a companion article in the January 2015 issue.
References
1. Kelly, E., “500M records stolen in 12
months,” USA TODAY, Oct. 21, 2014.
2. Wright, R., “Experts: Expect cloud
breaches to endanger data privacy,”
SearchCloudSecurity.com, Sept. 23,
2014.
3. Cheng, J., “Amid shrinking budgets,
DISA turns to the commercial cloud,”
DefenseSystems, Sept. 5, 2014.
4. Ferrara, E., AWS Cloud Security, Forrester Research, Feb. 5, 2014.
5. Leong, L., et al, Magic Quadrant for
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Gartner, Report ID G00261698, May, 2014.
6. Gore, L., Montgomery selected as one
of eight sites for Department of Defense
Core Data Center, Alabama Media
Group, July 19, 2013.
7. Dysart, J., “Army private cloud to
attack IT sprawl and save millions,” Defense Systems, March 22, 2012.
8. Stone, A., “DISA to take responsibility
for DoD’s core data centers,” Defense
News, Oct. 1, 2013.
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EE201412-CloudComputing MECH GH.indd 19
December 2014 • EE • 19
11/10/14 9:45 AM
19
OSCILLOSCOPES
Real-time jitter measurements
by Mike Schnecker and Dave Rishavy, Rohde & Schwarz
J
20
.
itter measurements are among the
most important ways of evaluating the performance of serial
digital data links as well as clocks. The
oscilloscope is by far the instrument most
commonly used for this measurement
due to its flexibility and capability to
measure clock and data signals.
In recent years, the dominant method for measuring jitter has been processing a long, real-time acquisition
of a signal and analyzing the timing
of its transitions. While this method
has provided high sensitivity and accurate results in most cases, the problem always has been the limited time
window over which the measurements
are made. Even with hundreds of millions of signal samples available for
processing, the absolute time interval
over which measurements are made
is relatively short. For example, a
100-Msample acquisition at 20 GS/second amounts to only 5 ms while a long
pseudo-random data sequence at 5 Gb/s
such as PRBS31 repeats in 400 ms.
Jitter is not a stationary process, and it
can vary widely depending on the time
at which it is observed.
While compliance to a given standard such as PCI Express or SATA can
be effectively measured using batch
processing of a long signal acquisition,
a better method is needed to see jitter
over longer time intervals and long
PRBS patterns. The application of ASIC
technology to the acquisition section of
an oscilloscope can be used to provide
essentially continuous time coverage
of jitter measurements, enhancing the
capability to measure intermittent jitter
as well as long data patterns.
One instrument that uses an ASIC is
the RTO oscilloscope from Rohde &
Schwarz. The ASIC, called the RTC, sits
in the acquisition path between the ADC
and the acquisition memory (Figure 1).
The RTC performs a number of tasks
including triggering, memory management, waveform histogram computation,
and mask testing. Each ASIC is capable
of processing the data from two ADCs
operating at a sampling rate of 10 GS/s
so it can process data at a rate of 20 GS/s.
Figure 1. Block diagram of the acquisition system of the RTO oscilloscope
The blocks shaded in blue are implemented in the RTC ASIC.
20 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-Osilloscopes FINAL.indd 20
A significant benefit of the RTC is
that triggering is performed on the digitized signal as it exits the ADC, and it
is ideal in that it adds no noise or jitter
to the displayed waveform. The trigger
block within the ASIC includes a clock
recovery block that also uses the digitized signal waveform and, as a result,
is ideal in the same way as the trigger is.
A screen image of the rising edge
of a 5-MHz clock measured on the
RTO with the trigger type set to clock
recovery (CDR) shows a relatively
wide edge caused by the clock jitter
relative to the recovered clock. Using
the ASIC, the oscilloscope measures the
clock edge 1 million times each second
to provide a histogram overlaid on the
image at the point where the signal is
at half amplitude.
Time coverage
Batch-mode jitter measurements use a
relatively small time interval limited by
the available memory in the oscilloscope.
Once acquired, the time record is processed to provide jitter and eye pattern
measurements. The acquisition
time is simply the number of
samples acquired divided by
the sampling rate of the ADC.
Assume that the signal
bit rate is 5 Gb/s, the ADC
sampling rate is 20 GS/s,
and the memory is 100 MS
for the batch-mode measurement. Then, the batch-mode
measurement time interval is
5 ms, representing a total of
12.5M signal transitions assuming a density of one-half;
that is, on average, half of the
bits transition in any given bit
interval. The number of jitter
measurements is quite large,
but it is only observed over a
small interval.
For a real-time jitter measurement at a rate of one
measurement every 1 µs,
over a 100-ms interval, 100k
edges are measured using this
www.evaluationengineering.com
11/10/14 12:08 PM
method. However, the measurements
are evenly distributed over the interval
whereas the batch mode is processing
the single 5-ms time interval over the
same time.
The recovered clock used as a jitter
reference is derived from the digitized
waveform in the batch-mode measurement. This reference clock is computed
over the relatively small time interval
over which the signal is acquired and
must be recomputed on each subsequent acquisition.
On the other hand, the real-time digital
clock recovery performed in the ASIC
uses the digitized waveform in the same
way as the batch mode but, unlike the
batch mode, the recovered clock tracks
the signal phase continuously. It is this
continuous clock recovery that allows
jitter measurements to be made at widely
spaced intervals. Since digital receivers
also track the signal phase continuously,
the real-time measurement more closely
matches the real-world operation of the
digital transmission.
Intermittent jitter
As mentioned, jitter is not stationary and
can occur over fairly long intervals. For
example, when a number of digital signals
line up in such a way that they transition
from one level to another at the same time
(simultaneous switching), power integrity
issues can result, leading to jitter or even
external interference that occurs over long
time intervals. In these cases, jitter can be
missed using batch-mode methods. This
is similar to “rare event capture” in which
the oscilloscope update rate increases
the capability to find rare events in the
time domain.
Figure 2 shows the histogram of a
jitter measurement on a 5-MHz clock
signal with an intermittent runt pulse.
Because it has lower amplitude than the
other pulses, the time at which the runt
pulse crosses the voltage threshold (2
V in this case) is offset from the mean
transition time of all of the other edges.
The runt pulse repeats once every second so it cannot be captured in a single
batch acquisition. However, the real-time
method, even at a measurement interval
of 1 µs, covers enough time to capture
the event.
Since the measurement update rate
of 1 µs is asynchronous with the runt
pulse, the transitions of the clock that are
www.evaluationengineering.com
EE201412-Osilloscopes MEC dB.indd 21
Figure 2. Comparison of measurement on a 5-MHz clock
with an injected runt at 1/s
measured represent a random sampling
of all transitions. The runt pulse will
occur at least once to a 90% probability
over a 40-s observation time.
The histograms of the timing jitter
measured using both the batch mode
and the continuous mode methods are
shown in Figure 2. The two other curves
on the chart are the cumulative density
functions (CDF) curves and indicate the
probability of the clock edge transition
happening at a given time from nominal.
The peak value of each CDF is one-half,
indicating that the clock will transition
early or late with equal probability.
The CDF measured using the continuous mode clearly shows a bump in the
tail at about 660 ps from the peak. The
cumulative probability at this point is
a bit more than 1x10-7. Recall that the
runt pulse was injected at a rate of once
per second and, since there are 5 million
clock pulses each second, the probability
of the runt occurring is 1/5 x 106 or 2
x 10-7. On the other hand, the batchmode measurement has no indication
of the runt happening. This is because
the acquisition window for the batchmode measurement is roughly 4 ms out
of every 2 seconds. While a number of
4-ms batches were measured, the large
time gap between them means that the
probability of measuring the runt is
nearly zero.
Conclusion
Traditional batch-mode methods for measuring jitter using real-time oscilloscopes,
while providing very accurate and repeatable measurement results, are limited in
their time coverage. One solution to this
problem is the application of high-speed
ASIC technology to provide real-time
clock recovery and jitter measurements.
The wide time coverage of this method
allows the capture and measurement of
even low probability events such as the
repeating of long pseudo-random bit
patterns as well as external interference.
About the authors
Mike Schnecker, the business development manager at Rohde & Schwarz,
received a B.S. from Lehigh University
and an M.S. from Georgia Tech, both in
electrical engineering. He has 22 years
of experience in the test and measurement
industry in applications, sales, and product
development roles. Prior to joining Rohde
& Schwarz, Schnecker held positions at
LeCroy and Tektronix. mike.schnecker@
rsa.rohde-schwarz.com
Dave Rishavy is the Rohde & Schwarz
America’s director of the oscilloscope
product family. Prior to joining the
company, he worked for 15 years in the
test and measurement field at Agilent
Technologies in areas such as application engineering, product marketing,
marketing management, and strategic
product planning. Rishavy has a B.S.
in electrical engineering from Florida
State University and an M.B.A. from the
University of Colorado. Dave.Rishavy@
rsa.rohde-schwarz.com
December 2014 • EE • 21
11/10/14 11:13 AM
.
21
EMC TEST
Test and component makers
address ESD, EMI concerns
by Rick Nelson, Executive Editor
E
22
.
lectronic products generally can’t
ship without meeting EMC, EMI,
or ESD requirements. New instruments, power supplies, and filters can help
ensure that your ICs meet electrostatic
discharge requirements and that you can
power-up your test and other equipment
without causing electromagnetic interference problems.
Langer EMV-Technik is addressing IC
ESD requirements with the introduction
of its 331-2 probe—an ESD generator that supports testing in accordance
with the IEC/EN 61000-4-2 standard. It
generates pulses from ±0.1 kV to 9 kV
at pulse frequencies from 0.1 Hz to 10
Hz and can be used to test an IC’s ESD
protection circuits.
The company says the probe’s mini
ESD generator design allows direct contact to IC pins, adding that compared
with conventional commercial ESD generators, it provides no extra unintended
radiated electric and magnetic fields
that could interfere with an IC under
test and cause it to malfunction even
though in compliance with the relevant
IEC standard.
The probe is suitable for measurements
on all types of IC pins—particularly ones
Model 331-2 probe
Courtesy of Langer EMV-Technik
22 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-EMC MECH dB.indd 22
associated with USB, LVDS, and Ethernet
interfaces. The probe can couple to an IC
pin directly or via a single-pole coupling
network. The probe works with the company’s BPS 203 Burst Power Station supply and TS 1002 IC test accessories set.
Gunter Langer, managing director of
the company, wrote in an undated white
paper, “The effort needed to make electronic devices immune to ESD according
to EN 61000-4 has been steadily increasing over the past years.”1 He added, “The
reduction in the structural width of ICs is
one of the reasons for an increase in their
susceptibility to disturbances.” He wrote
that at the time when IC process geometries were moving from 100 nm down
to 45 nm. The challenges only increase
as we move to 20 nm and below.
Powering-up test equipment
Also concerned with electromagnetic disturbances and test is SL Power Electronics.
At the 2014 International Test Conference,
the company demonstrated its TU425 Series
425-W, single-output AC/DC internal power
supplies. These supplies, the company said,
address the unique needs of various types
of test equipment, including oscilloscopes,
analyzers, test boards, and chromatography mass detectors as
well as industrial processcontrol systems that require
clean, reliable power. The
company added that the
supplies offer up to 90%
efficiencies and meet
EMC requirements per
EN 61000-4.
Moving beyond test
and measurement, SL
Power also is addressing
EMC and EMI issues in
architectural LED lighting applications with the
introduction of the LB115
power supply family. The
new power supply series
delivers 115 W in a 2 x
4 x 1.2-inch footprint and has a built-in
EMI filter to meet EN 55015 class B
requirements for lighting fixtures. “The
new LB115 family meets global EMI
and EMC lighting requirements, giving
design engineers an easy-to-integrate
power supply on a standard platform that
reduces time to market and eliminates a
costly EMI filter,” said Maggie Nadjmi,
product manager for SL Power Electronics.
Also addressing EMC, TDK-Lambda
recently announced the introduction of
the metal-cased DC-input RDEN-048050
EMC filter to complement its existing R
Series AC input EMC filters. The RDEN048050 can accept an input voltage of up
to 76 VDC and is rated for currents up
to 50 A.
Connections are made via rugged M5
studs for easy termination. The filter will
operate at 50 A in an ambient of -30°C
to 55°C, with derating to 20 A at 85°C.
With frequencies between 0.2 MHz and
10 MHz, common-mode attenuation is
30 dB, and with frequencies between 0.7
MHz and 30 MHz, differential-mode attenuation is 25 dB.
Input-to-case (ground) isolation is 1,500
VDC, and isolation resistance is 500 MΩ
at 500 VDC. The filter is certified to UL
60950-1 and EN 60939. The package size,
excluding terminals, is 90 mm deep, 60
mm wide, and 30 mm high. The filter finds
use in measurement equipment as well
as commercial-off-the-shelf and general
industrial equipment.
Reference
1. Langer, G., New aspects of ESD immunity, Langer EMV-Technik GmbH,
White Paper.
For more information
Langer EMV-Technik GmbH
www.rsleads.com/412ee-184
SL Power
www.rsleads.com/412ee-185
TDK-Lambda
www.rsleads.com/412ee-186
www.evaluationengineering.com
11/7/14 4:52 PM
s
ening
p
p
a
tr y H
Indus
Rick
n
NelseoEditor
tiv
Execu
g
ineerin
n Eng
io
t
a
alu
FL
EE-Ev Sarasota,
The Nano-Bio Manufacturing Consortium (NBMC) workshop held Oct. 17
at Northeastern University focused on
nanotechnology applications involving
human-performance measurement and
medical diagnostics.
The event was preceded by an afternoon tour of Northeastern’s George J.
Kostas Nanoscale Technology and Manufacturing Research Center. Sivasubramanian Somu, research associate professor
at Northeastern, welcomed attendees to
the tour by explaining that if you want to
make money from nanotechnology-based
products, you have to make them cheap.
But, he said, nanotechnology presents
challenges. Northeastern can help meet
the challenges with what Somu called a
rubber-stamp approach, which lets you
replicate a design over and over on flexible or hard substrates. The center on the
Northeastern campus offers a class 10
clean room and a variety of instruments
for spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy,
surface profiling, spectrum analysis, and
nanomanipulation. “Kostas is open to all
users,” he said. “We want more users to
come and reap the benefit.”
Malcolm Thompson of the NBMC
welcomed attendees to the workshop. He
said the consortium formed last year at the
behest of the Air Force Research Laboratory to improve human-performance
monitoring by measuring factors such
as blood pressure, skin temperature,
and ECG.
Thompson said NBMC’s vision is the
integration of materials and manufacturing within a common platform to address
flexible device applications through the
collaboration of universities, the government, and industry.
Rich Chaney of American Semiconductor elaborated on flexibility. You can
put a flexible strap on a watch, he said,
but the watch itself is not really flexible.
Wearable technology tethered to a hard
www.evaluationengineering.com
EE201412-IndustryHappenings MECH dB.indd 23
NBMC tackles human
performance monitoring,
medical diagnostics
box doesn’t lead to customer satisfaction,
he said, and people won’t want to wear
the product. “We need to cut the cord and
get away from those rigid boxes,” he said.
“Put everything into the sensor.”
Ahmed Busnaina of Northeastern University’s Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN) elaborated on points
made by Somu during the tour. Busnaina
noted that the cost of a printed sensor can
be one-tenth or one-hundredth the cost
of a silicon sensor. A way to fabricate
such sensors is to use CHN’s damascene
nanoscale offset printing process, he said,
which leverages directed assembly and
transfer technologies developed at CHN.
The process is implemented by the
Nanoscale Offset Printing System, or
NanoOPS, a prototype of which was demonstrated in September, Busnaina said.
The process could yield carbon nanotube
sensors on silicon or polymer substrates.
He cited, in particular, a nanotube biosensor for metabolic monitoring of sweat—a
substance of particular interest to several
presenters at the workshop. Unlike blood,
sweat can be monitored noninvasively
and continuously. “Any biomarker in the
blood will exist in sweat,” he said.
Jeffrey Morse of the University of Massachusetts Amherst described work with
GE Global Research and the University
of Cincinnati on low-cost wearable sensors for monitoring cognition and stress
biomarkers in sweat. The goal, he said,
is to monitor as many biomarkers as possible. The biomarkers (such as cortisol,
dopamine, oxytocin, glucose, lactic acid,
and orexin-A) in turn indicate levels of
cognition, exercise, and stress.
William Adams of the Corey Stringer
Institute at the University of Connecticut
described the institute’s work in preventing sudden death in sports. The institute is
named after a National Football League
player who died of heatstroke in 2001.
The institute works to track and develop
training goals, assess workload, evaluate
risk of injury, and create a balance of
under- vs. over-training. The researchers
want to monitor factors such as hydration
status, heat-accumulation status, heart
rate, sweat electrolytes, and environmental conditions including temperature and
humidity.
Other workshop presentations covered
topics as varied as fabrication of RF
antennas and medical diagnostics. Erik
S. Handy of SI2 Technologies said his
company conducts R&D for RF applications such as antennas. The company’s
roadmap includes transistors that double
as biosensors. The company also is studying blast dosimeters involving helmetmounted sensors that measure how much
trauma a warfighter has suffered. The
technique would allow nonexperts to record their own EEGs. Apart from military
applications, he envisions a $30 portable
brain recorder that would find use in sports
and education.
And William Peter of MIT described
the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
(ISN), which performs basic research and
supports the transitioning of its technology to the Army and industry partners to
meet defense and commercial dual-use
needs. The “S” in ISN is for soldier, he
said, but the technology can apply to
sailors, marines, and civilians.
Projects involve photonic crystal
nanostructures and optoelectronic fiber
devices. Nanocrystal dye constructs
that respond to pH, O2, and glucose, for
instance, can serve as environmental
reporters for medical diagnostics. Other
medical applications involve fiber devices and smart fabrics that enable full
body sensing. And OmniGuide, Peter
said, employs a hollow-core fiber for
use in laryngology, gynecology, neurosurgery, and otology. Next-generation
drug and vaccine delivery systems will
be nanoparticle-based systems that offer
unprecedented delivery efficiency and
efficacy, he added.
December 2014 • EE • 23
11/7/14 4:54 PM
.
23
EE PRODUCT PICKS
DOCSIS 3.1
Protocol Analyzer
24
.
Power-Analyzer Software
The DP-1000 DOCSIS 3.1 protocol analyzer, developed with
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Optimized for real-time signal processing with FPGA
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Power Meter
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The PW3335 power meter makes AC and DC power
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The 11050 HF LCR meter accurately measures and
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L I T E R AT U R E M A R K E T P L A C E
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INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
Advertiser
Page
CertifiGroup .............................................www.CertifiGroup.com ..................................... 24
Cytec Corp ...............................................www.cytec-ate.com............................................ 3
Educated Design & Development. Inc.....www.ProductSafet.com.................................... 24
Keysight Technologies.............................www.microlease.com/Keysight/scope ............... 5
Keysight Technologies.............................www.keysight.com/find/HSD-insight ..............8-9
Marvin Test Solutions ..............................www.marvintest.com/GENASYS......................... 1
Measurement Computing Corp ...............www.mccdaq.com............................................ 19
24 • EE • December 2014
EE201412-ProductPicks MEC dB.indd 24
Advertiser
Page
MILMEGA, div of AMETEK CTS ................www.cts.ametek.com....................................... 17
National Instruments...............................ni.com/automated-test-platform ......................BC
Pickering Interfaces Inc. .........................www.pickeringtest.com/1000modules ............ 13
Stanford Research Systems....................www.thinkSRS.com ......................................... IFC
Universal Switching Corp ........................www.uswi.com ................................................... 7
Vision Research.......................................www.visionresearch.com ................................. 16
www.evaluationengineering.com
11/10/14 11:10 AM
EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
Emphasizing switching
and support
by Rick Nelson, Executive Editor
“Pickering is about switching,” said
Bob Stasonis, director of sales and marketing at Pickering Interfaces. “We are
involved in switching on almost every
platform you see in test. Our history
goes back to the 1960s when we started
building relays.” The company, he said
in an interview at Autotest in St. Louis
in September, also focuses on the related
field of resistive sensor emulation.
With a focus on switching, he said,
the company’s goal is to offer so much
variation that competitors can’t keep up.
Managing director Keith Moore, Stasonis said, refers to Pickering’s strategy
as “mass customization.” A competitor,
Stasonis said, may have one switch card
that does one thing very well, but Pickering will offer 10 variations that more
closely meet customer needs. “We now
provide more than 1,000 choices in PXI
alone,” he said.
The downside, he added, is that with
so many choices, it can be difficult for
customers to pick the optimum solution. “That’s the thing we are working
on now,” he said at Autotest, “and I
hope that next year I’ll be able to show
you how we are making the selection
process easier.”
Pickering, Stasonis said, serves a
variety of industries where accuracy
is critical. Pickering equipment is not
likely to be found testing consumer devices like cellphones or tablets, he said,
but it will be found in communications
applications such as cell towers and
ZigBee transmitters. Communications,
automotive, military/aerospace, and
medical represent four key areas for
Pickering, he added.
When asked if the military’s push to
COTS equipment is blurring the line
between military and other applications,
he said he still sees differentiation in
90% of the cases. “The defense industry
wants your equipment to last 25 years,”
www.evaluationengineering.com
EE201412-ExecInsight MECH FINAL.indd COVERIII
Bob Stasonis
Director of Sales
and Marketing
Pickering Interfaces
he said, “and you’re not going to hear
that in the consumer market.” Further, he
said, specs such as insertion loss tend to
be more stringent in the defense industry—and also in the automotive industry
in applications involving, for example,
hardware-in-the-loop simulation of an
antilock-brake system.
“Generally speaking,” he said, “defense wants long-term support. We still
sell products we designed in 1988.”
Pickering now provides extensive offerings in PXI and LXI formats, which
of course were not available in 1988.
But the company has been able to adopt
its offerings to standard architecture
formats that suit specific application
areas. He cited an aircraft manufacturer
that needed a large 100 x 100 matrix,
which would have been cumbersome
with a rat’s nest of cables in PXI. LXI
proved to be the more effective solution
with this application involving high I/O
count of one signal type. Conversely,
PXI might be the better choice for a mix
of RF, digital, and power signals, he said.
Of course, Pickering is a switching
specialist, and your test application is
going to require instruments like multimeters, analyzers, generators, and so
on as well as switches. A company that
offers all these products might seem an
attractive option. Said Stasonis, “Onestop shopping is good if you’ve got
relaxed specifications.” But not everyone does everything well, he said, and
your best option might be an instrument
(PXI, for example) from one company
and a switch matrix from Pickering.
The PXI architecture, he said, ensures
multivendor cards will work together,
and Pickering provides support in the
unlikely event of difficulty. “We do
switching very, very well,” he said, adding, “One-stop shopping may make your
job easier up front but cause problems
in the long run.”
Stasonis noted one surprise over the
past year: The old fashioned computer
PCI market is still very active. “We saw
an uptick in our orders for PCI,” he said,
“and we saw many defense companies
are buying it.” He said he has visited
customers who have PXI in the lab and in
the NPI area, but they want a lower-cost
tester in production, and they are buying industrial PCs along with more PCI
switching. Pickering, he said, is working
to meet their requirements.
Stasonis commented that the move
toward solid-state switches is not proceeding as rapidly as he may have hoped.
Solid state sees use in HALT/HASS
applications, he said, where a DMM
might scan many nodes, and the 100-Ω
solid-state switch impedance is insignificant compared with the DMM’s 1-MΩ
and up input impedance. But for RF
applications, people note the solid-state
switch’s 3-dB or 4-dB insertion loss
and get panicky. But that insertion loss
is repeatable, and if you can calibrate it
out of your test, solid state is the better answer. Mechanical switches may
last for 1 million, 5 million, or even 10
million cycles, but if you’re doing 24
x 7 telemetry, 10 million cycles may
take only a year. “If you can’t live with
more than half a decibel of insertion
loss you’ve got to go mechanical,” he
concluded, adding that more education
is needed to help customers make the
optimum choice.
Xxxxxx2014
2014••EE
EE••25
III
December
11/10/14 9:31 AM
.
III
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EE201412-AD NationalInstr.indd COVERIV
11/6/14 4:05 PM