Evaluation Engineering - 13

RF/MICROWAVE

Sponsored by

measurement solution providers to get
their thoughts on trends in RF/microwave
testing and areas of focus, 5G, and what
new products/solutions are now on the
market. Read on to see what they told us.

Thermal RF/microwave testing

SPECIAL REPORT

TESTING FOR THE FUTURE
5G brings onslaught of challenges in
RF/microwave testing
By Mike Hockett, Editor-in-Chief
As the basis for telecommunications
services, radio frequency (RF) energy
enabled near-instant transmission and
reception of electronic signals from one
source to another-across distances that
span millimeters to thousands of miles.
As the technology has improved, so has
that speed and reliability of those signals,
and it's largely thanks to the work being
done by engineers in the field of RF/

microwave test. The onset of 5G is bound
to drive demand for advanced testing, but
telecommunications isn't the only application area for RF/microwave energy.
Microwave ovens, radar, industrial heating and sealing, and RF components are
other areas where RF/microwave testing
comes into play.
We at Evaluation Engineering gathered
input from a variety of electronic test &

As a subset of RF/microwave testing,
thermal testing is an important part of
building any electronic system when it
must be highly reliable. Better methods,
better automation, and benchtop accessibility can greatly streamline the process.
Testing at the component level as well as
system testing all fit into the scheme of
making reliable RF and microwave products in a way that provides traceability.
As much we may desire to have faster,
better and easier thermal testing, we can't
bend the laws of physics or have a test
programming wizard button that makes
the perfect test profile for a complicated
electronic system. Fortunately, we can use
the laws of physics to our advantage and
easily make better testing choices with
the help of the best automation features
in a temperature controller.
For example, temperature cycling a device that has circuit boards, active power
devices, a heat sink, and some kind of enclosure might be a challenge to make a
fast and effective temperature profile to
test the product.
"By having the controller monitor more
than one point, it can easily be determined that everything under test is within the required temperature range and
not blindly moving on to the next temperature setpoint without assuring temperature is actually achieved plus settling
time if needed," explained Jon Booher,
chief technology officer at San Diego, CAbased Total Temp Technologies, a provider of thermal test solutions. "Advanced
temperature control algorithms can easily allow controlled amounts of overshoot
to get the temperatures into uniformity
more quickly. Local alarm indications,
email, or text alerts can also make notifications to the technician for end-of-test
or something going out-of-bounds, and
easy-to-program front panel or remote
functionality with LabVIEW or C++
drivers can coordinate the testing with
other instruments."
JUNE 2019 EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

13
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Evaluation Engineering

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