Modularity protects investment in MIL/aero test applications
Test-equipment vendors including Agilent Technologies, EADS North America Test and Services, National Instruments, and VTI Instruments are offering a variety of new modular hardware and software products to support military and aerospace applications, as recounted in EE-Evaluation Engineering's April special report on test applications.
In addition, those companies are working to help their customers protect their investment in test equipment and software.
Jean Manuel Dassonville, software and modular solutions outbound manager at Agilent Technologies, said, “From a hardware point of view , many modules can be reused or upgraded to support new test requirements, higher speed, or extended features. Modular architectures are a fast way to bring about the latest technological innovations through software enhancements or replacing a module in a system.
“From a software point of view, Agilent’s strategy is to provide software that enables measurement and analysis capabilities that are independent of the underlying measurement hardware. For example, the same Agilent 89600 VSA software can be used with a wide portfolio of signal analyzers as well as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.”
Nikhil Ayer, RF product manager at National Instruments, stated, “The modularity of the PXI platform allows easy upgrades to the latest hardware in order to meet increasing demands for speed and bandwidth.” And with respect to software, he said, “The backward compatibility of LabVIEW, CVI, and NI TestStand allows customers to easily upgrade their applications as new software versions become available.”
Anirudh Narayanan, lead applications engineer at VTI Instruments, said, “We understand that test systems and software can be a major investment, and customers expect test systems to outlive the products they test.” MIL/aero customers' expectations, he said, present special challenges, because their products typically last several decades. “At VTI,” he said, “we have made commitments to customers to continue supporting our products for as long as we can. Many of our VXI products that were designed over 15 years ago are still manufactured and supported by VTI. We perform extensive reengineering efforts as necessary on our products to iron out obsolescence sources and provide continued support.”
In addition, Narayanan said, “When other companies obsolete their products, we’ve been able to step in occasionally with functionally equivalent instrumentation with similar APIs. For example, when Tektronix discontinued a DMM line, we designed products that could work as a near drop-in replacement to these so that existing test systems that use these don’t need to be redesigned.”
Finally, he commented, “When we introduce new products we aim to maintain software compatibility with our existing products to simplify migration. For example, our entire LXI and PXIe switch family uses the same exact driver which allows complete seamless migration from small channel-count switch systems in PXIe to large channel-count systems in LXI.”
And of course, you get what you pay for. As Robert Waldeck, vice president of business development for switching at Giga-tronics, put it, “We recommend the use of the highest quality RF and Microwave switches.” Customers sometimes resist the higher initial cost, he added, but that cost is always paid back through trouble-free operation.
MIL/AERO TEST RESOURCES
Agilent Technologies: “Accelerate interference detection and identification in wireless devices—overview” (Application Note).
Agilent Technologies: “Creating Multi-Emitter Signal Scenarios with COTS Software and Instrumentation” (Video).
Agilent Technologies: “M9392A PXI Vector Signal Analyzer Multichannel Streaming Solution” (Application Note).
Agilent Technologies: “Multichannel Wideband Streaming” (White Paper).
Agilent Technologies: “Wideband Radar and Satcom Measurements” (Application Note).
EADS North America Test and Services: “COTS Product Guide.”
Giga-tronics: “A Practical Guide to Microwave Switch Selection for ATE Systems” (Application Note).
Giga-tronics: “Impact of Switching on ATE Measurements” (White Paper).
Giga-tronics: “Improved Switching Architectures for ATE Systems” (Application Note).
Giga-tronics, “Switching Solutions for Multi-Channel BERT Testing” (Application Note).
National Instruments: “RF Signal Analyzers for RADAR Test, Radio Test, Satellite Communication, and Signal Intelligence” (Slide Presentation).
National Instruments: “Using R Series Multifunction RIO Devices for Bit-Error-Rate Test” (Case Study, Harris RF Communications Division).
VTI Instruments: “Implementing a cots design approach to reduce development time of complex microwave test adapters” (IEEE Autotestcon 2012 paper by Esteban Najle of BAE Systems UK and Tom Sarfi of VTI Instruments).
View previous online exclusives:
“Design and test links help support multistandard radios from design to production” (March Online Exclusive Special Report),
“Nonintrusive Test Complements ATE to Meet PCB Test Needs” (February Online Exclusive Special Report),
“LXI Positioned for Challenging Applications,”
“Software Helps Address Signal Integrity Challenges for Serial-Bus Test” (January Online Exclusive Special Report).
“Anritsu looks to eliminate 'hoist and hope' with portable instruments,”
“ITC topics extend from jitter measurement to board and system test,”
“Mild Hybridization Could Boost Automotive Efficiency,”
“Autotestcon Panelists Highlight Modular Instrumentation,”
“Software Boosts Vector Signal Transceiver,”
“LabVIEW 2012 shares stage with vector signal transceiver,”
“'We don't judge, we measure',” and
“New Breed of Semiconductors Demands New Breed of Semi Characterization and Test Solutions.”