Evaluation Engineering - 10

INSTRUMENTATION

Copper Mountain
Technologies' CobaltFx
line of frequency
extension modules.

What are customers asking for?
The customer demands that test instrumentation vendors face are constantly
evolving. Here's what such vendors told
EE their customers are asking for today
in modular instruments.
Dewey, Martin Test Solutions: "As
noted earlier, functional density is one
key feature that helps customers achieve
a compact footprint for the test system.
Whether it's testing a component, a PCB,
or system, there is an ever-increasing need
for more channels of switching, analog,
or digital test resources without incurring the penalty of a larger test system
footprint. This is particularly important
for applications requiring test system
portability, but even on the factory floor,
test engineers are looking to downsize
their test assets. And for those systems
with high channel count requirements,
the ability to incorporate "wireless" interconnect methods that connect system
resources to the UUT offers the customer
a superior and reliable interconnect solution. With modular instrumentation,
customers are also looking for flexibility
to employ various program development
environments. PXI vendors today offer a
variety of Windows-based programming
environments. Many PXI vendors (including MTS) also are now offering Linux as
an alternate programming environment."
Arebi and Malatest, Per Vices: "Many
of our customers have asked for similar
features in their SDRs to enable advanced
modular instrumentation. High bandwidths, number of channels, and wider
operating frequency are all in high demand. In order to accommodate that,
our solutions incorporate varying numbers of independent radio channels with

Per Vices' newest
software-defined-radio, Cyan, is a highgain transceiver and signal-processing platform.

EVALUATION ENGINEERING MAY 2019

wideband RF operations and top-of-theline sampling bandwidths. Additionally,
by offering a flexible number of radio
channels, customers requiring differing
solutions can find it on one platform. Our
customers have also made it clear that
they are looking for high bandwidth capabilities in order to achieve improved
data acquisition and spectrum maneuverability, ensuring that data can be sent
and acquired efficiently to cope with increased data rates while making efficient
use of the spectrum.
"With shifts in standards, customers
are looking for machines that are able
to easily adapt, by offering both flexible
radio front ends along with high digital
backhaul data rates and a programmable
software base. We ensure that our SDRs
are able to meet these needs and further
perform (de)modulation using multiple
standards available from our IP library.
Perhaps the most requested feature in our
modular instruments is for advanced digital signal processing resources. We are
able to do so through on-board FPGAs
that incorporate a high number of logic
resources that allow processing to be
done on the unit and therefore reducing
the number of necessary components
and bench space. With these features,
our SDRs are able to provide a modular

instrumentation answer for current and
emerging needs, offering an adaptive
solution that is well suited for future
connectivity."
Stasonis, Pickering: "The majority of our
customers prefer modular test because
of its flexibility and scalability. As PXI is
an industry standard, they know that it is
supported by many vendors, which adds
to the flexibility. That flexibility also gives
our customers a standard that will work
in all their applications. As it has been for
decades, customers want more features
and more technology in less space... and
at a lower price compared to conventional
instrumentation. Support features are
becoming more critical, especially when
system uptime is crucial, so robust diagnostics to ensure that a test system is
working correctly are a must."
Walker, Copper Mountain Technologies:
"Customers are looking for solutions to
problems. They don't have the time or
inclination to become measurement experts. They want devices that detect problems and point to immediate solutions in
as direct a way as possible."

Challenges
We know that customers ask for a lot out
of their modular instruments. So, can vendors keep with their requests? Here's what
they told us.
Dewey, Marvin Test Solutions: "PXI modular instrumentation leverages both the
PCI and PCIe standards, which means
it can take advantage of the pricing volume associated with PCI and PCIe components. This, in turn, helps to mitigate

Evaluation Engineering

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