Evaluation Engineering - 10

MODULAR TEST

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primarily advantageous in applications
requiring multiple stimulus and measurement channels," they said. "For example,
simulating the many radar and EW signals experienced in a modern battlespace
usually requires many signal generators.
Stacking separate benchtop units not only
takes up valuable rack space, but coordinating their behavior to generate multiple
emitters often requires additional hardware to phase-lock their signals together."
They noted that with the Giga-tronics
AXIe platform, each signal generator is
a blade that slides into a chassis that includes the infrastructure to share reference and control signals, thereby simplifying the job of simulating many emitters.
"One nice thing about the AXIe platform
is that the standard has a provision for a
customizable section of the backplane,
which allows a supplier to add specific
capability for enhancing their offering's
functionality," they added.

Giga-tronics
AXIe system for a
radar application.

SPECIAL REPORT

LEVERAGING
MODULARITY

FROM MEASUREMENT
HARDWARE TO DFT SOFTWARE
By Rick Nelson, Contributing Technical Editor
	 The term "modular" in the context of
electronics test and measurement
suggests industry-standard architectures
like AXIe, PXI, or VXI, which define physical and electrical specifications for modular instruments and chassis. LXI relaxes
the physical constraints but lets you interconnect your choice of electrically
compatible instruments and compute
resources. Similarly, USB configurations
allow you to take a modular approach to
selecting interconnectable measurement
units and computers.

10

EVALUATION ENGINEERING MAY/JUNE 2020

Many manufacturers are continuing
to innovate on these platforms, yet others are pursuing proprietary modular
approaches. The concept of modularity
can extend from instrumentation all the
way to design-for-test software, where a
hierarchical approach creates retargetable test functionality.
Giga-tronics supports AXIe with its
Advanced Signal Generation and Analysis
Platform, according to John Regazzi, CEO,
and Dan Kirby, vice president of business
development. "Modular platforms are

AMETEK VTI Instruments
EX1200 modular test family.

Chris Gibson, senior product manager, VTI Instruments, a product line in
AMETEK's Programmable Power business unit, defined "modular test" as the
capability to integrate source, measure,
and switching instrumentation modules
through a backplane into a single mainframe. "Modular systems offer more flexibility and interchangeability to select a
wide range of instrumentation in a much
more compact footprint than a system of
conventional stand-alone instruments," he
said. "Direct connection of modules to a
common backplane enhances synchronization and communication speeds between
modules compared with systems configured with independent instruments."
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Evaluation Engineering

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