TDK Corporation unveiled the latest TDK SensEI product line, edgeRX Vision. edgeRX Vision is a high-speed defect detection system that analyzes customer product images or movies and is capable of identifying even the smallest components—down to 1 mm by 0.5 mm—with exceptional precision. Powered by advanced AI, the system delivers real-time, highly accurate defect detection […]
Sensing
FieldDAQ captures physical data close to the sensor
FieldDAQ modules accept sensors directly and send data over Ethernet. Collecting data such as temperature, strain, and other physical parameters often requires long sensor wires or rugged equipment close to the measurement source. Long wires can add errors due to losses in analog wiring or from outside interference. Field installations often add environmental and power […]
Teardown: HP 8112A pulse generator
This 50 MHz pulse generator was built as solid as a rock. It’s almost all metal. We take the unit completely apart and look at it from a system and board level. On a visit to the MIT swapfest in 2024, I came across an HP 8112A 50 MHz pulse generator. For $20, I brought […]
OFC 2025: Test equipment
This year’s OFC in San Francisco featured one thing, or so it seemed: 1.6T. Every company making optical modules was showing them lest they be left behind in the always accelerating data rate race. As with any emerging technology, test equipment must lead the way. After all, how do you know if anything works unless […]
VSON package modulators measure 3.5 mm x 2.7 mm
Texas Instruments (TI) introduced the industry’s first functionally isolated modulators, helping designers achieve more precise motor control in compact robot designs. The new AMC0106M05, AMC0136, and AMC0106M25 isolated modulators enable increased precision and higher resolution of 12 to 14 effective number of bits (ENOB) for accurate and reliable phase current sensing and DC voltage sensing […]
Modular 4-channel power supply mounts in a test rack
B&K Precision announces the MPS Series. This series delivers up to four output channels and 1200 W of power in a compact 1U mainframe. Users can configure a customized 1-to-4 channel DC power system by selecting from eight interchangeable modules. The modules support various voltage/current output ratings and are capable of generating 100 W (multi-range) […]
Engineers use AI/ML to improve test
Engineers can use AI/ML to reduce test development time, analyze test data from manufacturing, automate visual inspection and calibration, and identify counterfeit components. Here’s how some do it. Testing takes too much time; just ask any engineering or production manager. Shortening test-development time can reduce time to market. Shortening production test time lowers manufacturing costs. […]
Pickering upgrades single-slot PXIe system controller
Pickering Interfaces announced its next-generation single-slot PXIe embedded controller (model 43-920-002) – the most compact and powerful 3U one-slot embedded controller available for the PXI Express platform. Debuting at electronica, the world’s leading trade fair for the electronics industry, the new module builds on Pickering’s existing controller offering. Pickering’s model 43-920-001, its first PXI embedded controller, was the […]
Isolated current probes eliminate ground loops
IsoVu isolated current probes from Tektronix isolate oscilloscopes from circuits used for EVs, motors, and power converters. Trying to make shunt-based current measurements with a typical oscilloscope probe is essentially impossible. That’s because one side of the probe connects to ground through the instrument. Using an ungrounded power cord is anything but safe. Differential probes […]
How to determine noise figure: part 2
The relationship between noise and temperature prompted a precursor of the IEEE to promulgate an alternative definition of noise figure in 1959. In part 1 of this series, we described the work of the Danish-American radio engineer Harald Friis, who described noise factor F of a device or system as the ratio of the input-power […]
