The votes are in. Business-to-Business publisher WTWH Media, LLC, has announced the winners of the second-year Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program (LEAP) Awards, a design engineering product competition honoring the most exciting new products in a host of technology areas: Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Materials, Analog Electronics, Connectivity, Embedded Computing, Fastener Technology, Hydraulics, Industrial Automation, Mechanical, Motion Control, Pneumatics, Power Electronics, Software, Switches & Sensors, and Test & Measurement.
Earning top honors in the test & measurement category was 
Tektronix with its patented Signal Separation software. Tektronix says this software allows automotive engineers to perform Automotive Ethernet testing without disrupting the ECU system or cutting the Ethernet cable to install a directional coupler, while its PAM3 analysis package provides in-depth insight into signal characteristics at the system level.
As auto designers move toward Automotive Ethernet or IEEE 802.3bw technology in vehicles, comprehensive design validation ensures interoperability and reliable operation across multiple ECUs. Current Automotive Ethernet testing solutions require a directional coupler to separate the full-duplex signal. This adds insertion and return loss and makes it difficult to determine if an error is a result of the system or the coupler.
To eliminate these problems, Tektronix’ industry-first Signal Separation software separates the full-duplex signal by looking at voltage and current waveforms from both master and slave test points and provides separated signals using a proprietary algorithm. This method displays true ECU signals without the need for a directional coupler and provides full protocol debug of master and slave ECUs simultaneously.
The three levels of PAM3 in Automotive Ethernet add test complexity, in part because the three amplitudes produce two eye diagrams. The PAM3 analysis package provides a comprehensive measurement and software clock recovery for greater insight into signal characteristics, speeding up validation of PAM3 designs with different cable lengths, noise conditions or ECU configurations. The solution also includes Automotive Ethernet Physical layer compliance testing per Open Alliance TC8 specification with full test automation and detailed pass/fail reporting.
Congratulations to Tektronix and to the other winners of this year’s awards.
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