Fast sampling rates and long recording times make data recorders useful for documenting signal qualities that ordinary test equipment can easily miss. Jamie Pederson | B&K Precision Corp. Data recording instruments have a long history that dates back to the 1800s when Charles Babbage incorporated an instrument into a rail car to record over a […]
FAQ
FIPS 140-2 security testing for wireless medical devices
Design engineers should be aware of several testing issues surrounding encryption standards designed to protect data from bad actors. Jay White | Laird Connectivity The bad guys don’t care about your social security number and credit card numbers as much as you might think. Stolen security numbers are almost literally a dime a dozen on […]
Testing regimes for the new frequencies and features of 5G
Measurements taking place in pre-commercial 5G network trials provide new insights and overcome uncertainties before the technology’s formal launch. By Rohde&Schwarz The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defined fifth-generation (5G) cellular technology in Release 15, which updated mission-critical (MC) communications and MC service functions, to meet the International Telecommunication Union’s IMT-2020 performance requirements. IMT-2020 laid […]
Verifying 5G with OTA testing
The 5G realm puts a new emphasis on making measurements without hardwired connections. Adnan Khan | Anritsu Co. 5G systems are being rolled out globally, bringing with them throughput speeds of up to 10 Gbps, higher frequencies that extend into the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, and devices operating in multiple radio access technologies (RATs). Engineers […]
Detecting counterfeit integrated circuits without a microscope
Curve-trace testing can reveal whether an incoming batch of ICs are bogus without resorting to destructive inspection measures. Alan Lowne | Saelig Making fake “lookalike” integrated circuits which resemble real ones takes minimal skill. It may simply require finding cheap parts in the same package and applying new markings. This problem has arisen due to […]
The complexity of wireless receiver testing
Eric Hsu | Keysight Technologies, Inc. The demand for wireless communications now challenges the physical limitations of today’s wireless communications systems. Interference can easily arise when systems operate in a crowded wireless environment using a shared spectrum. Signal congestion makes the process of designing, testing, and isolating system problems more complex. In the next few […]
Working with scope-based spectrum analyzers
The spectrum analyzer is a member of the oscilloscope family. An electrical signal is fed, by means of a BNC cable or probe, into an input port on the front panel, and its graphic image appears on the LCD screen. But rather than the oscilloscope’s familiar time domain graph, in which amplitude in volts is […]
Basics of voltage doubler circuits
Voltage can be doubled (and therefore multiplied by any power of two using cascading devices) through purely electronic means without resorting to a transformer. Voltage-current ratios apply, so doubling is not a question of getting free electrical energy that did not previously exist. Doubling the voltage and thus reducing the current available at the output […]
Basics of troubleshooting power supplies
When a piece of equipment turns up completely dead, one of the first things to look at is the power supply. If using an oscilloscope for this sort of troubleshooting, it should be a hand-held, battery-powered instrument isolated from ground, at least at the outset. The reason is there may be internal voltages that are […]
COVID-19 and climate change
A single coronavirus particle mutated and survived the transition from animal carrier to human victim, and so far with verified U.S. cases exceeding one million, there is no known therapy or protective vaccine. An unexpected consequence of mediation efforts is that for the first time in generations, Los Angeles and other urban areas have blue […]