The envelope, please—and the winners are…. While the announcement of EE’s 1996 Readers’ Choice Awards may not be as glittery and dramatic as the Oscars or Emmys, they are equally important to you—today’s electronics test professional.
Through your overwhelming response via Reader Service cards to advertisements that appeared in EE during 1995, eight companies from around the United States are receiving EE’s third annual Readers’ Choice Awards. Each company represents a different discipline in the electronics industry.
To reflect your growing interest for information on Communications Test, we added this category to the competition. The other seven areas are traditional to the contest: ATE, EMI/RFI, ESD, Environmental Stress Screening (ESS), Inspection, Instrumentation and Software.
The ATE category winner is Ostby Barton for its Cyclo-Soldered Probes. These probes, developed for use in harsh environments, feature a spring metallurgically bonded to the plunger and barrel. The maximum probe resistance is limited to the spring itself, which is typically under 1 W .
In Communications Test, top honors go to Hewlett-Packard for the HP 8920B RF Communications Test Set. The set uses PCMCIA memory cards for data storage and radio test programs. It has the functionality, speed and accuracy for testing land mobile radios, cellular telephones and other communications systems.
For EMI/RFI, Schlegel walks away with the award for the second consecutive year. This time it’s the company’s EMI/RFI Shielding Gaskets, which are available in more than 40 standard profiles in copper, silver and nickel-copper metallized fabrics. Many profiles meet UL94 VÆ requirements.
Red Wing Shoes, featuring the #8647 style for men and the #8976 for women, wins in ESD. Both Type I shoes have a resistance range of 106 W to 108 W . The women’s shoe comes in black leather with a Cambrelle® covered urethane cushion and slip-resistant Grip-Tec® wedge sole. The men’s brown leather shoe has a Cambrelle covered urethane-over-Texon® footbed; a ribbed, tempered steel shank, and a slip-resistant Grip-Tec Hex-Trek sole.
Data Physics is no stranger to the EE Readers’ Choice Awards. This is the company’s third year capturing top honors in the ESS category. This year, the product is the DP550WIN Shaker Controller, a series of PC-based cards that consists of a digital signal processor, AD and DA hardware, and software for processing all modes of vibration and shock control. Each board contains 16 nonmultiplexed channels each configured as control, response or limit.
Leica’s StereoZoom® SZ-4 Microscope wins in Inspection. The scope features the Balanced Visual Response Optics System, the InstaZoom™ System, a 56-mm objective housing for use in tight spaces, and a range of stands including the Flex-Arm. The zoom ratio is 4.4:1 and resolution is 360 line pairs/mm.
For Instrumentation, the Protek 506 DMM is the top choice. It offers true rms AC measurements; dual display for frequency, AC voltage and temperature; an RS-232-C interface; and a 10-location memory. It features overload protection and is designed in compliance with UL 1244 and VDE-0411.
Rounding out the list of winners is National Instruments with instrument drivers from LabWindows®/CVI and LabVIEW®. These programs have driver libraries of more than 450 instruments from more than 45 instrument vendors. Every driver is delivered in source code, so it can be customized for any application.
Another Chance
If you missed any of these products when they first appeared in EE and would like more information, it’s not too late. Turn to the Reader Service card in this issue, and circle the number that corresponds to the number printed below the reproduction of each ad in this article. Return the card to us, and your request will be promptly processed.
Copyright 1996 Nelson Publishing Inc.
March 1996