Touch technology speeds measurement results

One example is Keithley Instruments’ Model DMM7510 7½-digit DMM (Figure 1), which the company calls a graphical sampling multimeter. It integrates a high-accuracy digital multimeter, a digitizer for waveform capture, and a capacitive touchscreen user interface that provides an oscilloscope-like view of the signal being measured. Jerry Janesch, a senior market development manager at Keithley, said the instrument follows the company’s trademarked “Touch, Test, Invent” design philosophy. “The goal,” he said, “is to help engineers contend with time-to-market pressures by getting more information faster.” The waveform display, he added, lets users “go beyond the numbers” without turning to other instruments such as oscilloscopes.

In addition to facing time-to-market pressures, Janesch said, companies hire fewer dedicated test engineers, and often instruments are used by non-EEs—such as materials scientists and chemists—or recent EE graduates. They have a need for easy-to-use instruments optimized for today’s tasks. Further, such users increasingly face the need to make accurate low-level measurements—to ensure, for example, that a next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) device can run for 10 years on a coin cell.

Janesch stated, “To get an in-depth understanding of their devices under test, engineers need to capture small signals at higher accuracy and faster speeds than traditional DMMs can provide. The DMM7510’s intuitive operation and high-speed digitizer allow it to address a wide range of test applications, including device characterization, debugging, and analysis; production test/ATE; and applications in research labs and universities.”

The DMM7510 offers users a combination of capabilities, including 14-ppm basic one-year DCV accuracy, typically only found in metrology-grade instrumentation—but at about half the cost. The precision multimeter provides the flexibility to select resolution levels from 3½ to 7½ digits. In addition, expanded measurement ranges (100 mV, 1 Ω, and 10 µA) enhance low-level accuracy, and an autocalibration feature minimizes temperature and time drift. Low burden voltage improves low current measurement accuracy.

The instrument’s integrated waveform-capture capability helps users explore their measurements further, Janesch said. The DMM features a 1-MS/s, 18-bit digitizer, and users can view and analyze current and voltage waveforms and transients without the need for an additional instrument or PC. The instrument includes edge, pulse, and window analog triggers, and it is suitable for low-level power analysis, sensor test, medical device R&D, and component test.

The five-inch capacitive touchscreen interface/display helps users obtain results faster, Janesch said, adding that even novice users can quickly become comfortable with the instrument. Users can view results both numerically and graphically, and they can interact with the signals they’re studying for greater insights into results. Pan, pinch, and zoom functions and the ability to set cursors enable flexible signal capture and allow for high interaction with test data.

Test results stored in any of the data buffers can be displayed in graph, histogram, or numerical/datasheet form. A built-in graphing utility supports displaying and comparing measurements or waveforms from up to four reading buffers at once. Test results and screen images can be stored via the USB 2.0 memory port.

Built-in support is provided for low resistance applications, including dry circuit, offset compensation, and open lead detection. A rotary control knob offers an alternative to touchscreen navigation. A front/rear input selector indicates the inputs currently in use.

Connections and controls simplify configuring multi-instrument test solutions, including input connectors, remote-control interfaces (GPIB, USB 2.0, and LXI/Ethernet), a D-sub nine-pin digital I/O port (for internal/external trigger signals and handler control), and TSP Link jacks for connecting to other Keithley instruments with an embedded test script processor (TSP). Free KickStart instrument control startup software lets PC users configure and take measurements quickly. The U.S. list price for the DMM7510 is $3,990.

Power analyzer

The power analyzer is another instrument class acquiring touchscreen capability with the January introduction of Keysight Technologies’ IntegraVision instrument (Figure 2). Bob Zollo, product planner for Keysight’s Power and Energy Division, said a goal of this instrument is to help use power more efficiently—to protect the environment, foster international stability and security, and enable a mobile society.

Traditionally, Zollo said, power analyzers have complemented oscilloscopes for power measurements. Both can measure harmonics, but you need a power analyzer to measure low power (standby) and steady-state harmonics for efficiency. Conversely, you would need an oscilloscope to perform startup characterization, view transients (to ensure stability), and view switch-mode power-supply switching losses and other internal signals. Neither instrument is good at observing power-consumption transitions from sleep to standby to active modes.

To make it unnecessary to use two instruments, Zollo said, IntegraVision includes touch-driven oscilloscope visualization capability. The combination offers 16-bit resolution, 0.05% basic accuracy, 1,000-V isolation, and a 5-MS/s digitizer that captures voltage, current, and power in real time with a 2-MHz bandwidth. The instrument permits single-shot measurements at 5-MS/s with 16-bit resolution to display inrush and transient conditions.

Zollo said the IntegraVision power analyzers’ user interface is based on technology from Keysight’s InfiniiVision 6000 X-Series oscilloscope, including its 12.1-inch multitouch capacitive touchscreen with pinch, zoom, and scroll capabilities. The intuitive user interface enables engineers to gain measurement insight within minutes.

Rear-panel connections feature voltage inputs, isolated BNC inputs for current probes measuring up to 50 A, and a direct current input to two internal shunts for measurements to 2 A rms and 50 A rms. An integrated sliding safety cover prevents simultaneous connection to the BNC and direct current inputs. Other connections include LAN, USB, and trigger I/O.

The two-channel single-phase IntegraVision PA2201A power analyzer can be ordered now with shipments beginning in May. The four-channel, three-phase IntegraVision PA2203A power analyzer can be ordered in October with shipments beginning in December. List prices are $21,500 and $31,500, respectively.

Mainstream oscilloscopes

Keysight Technologies has brought capacitive touchscreens and graphical zone triggering to the mainstream oscilloscope market with the January introduction of the InfiniiVision 3000T X-Series digital-storage and mixed-signal oscilloscopes. The scopes help engineers overcome usability and triggering challenges and improve their problem-solving capability and productivity. The new oscilloscope series offers upgradable bandwidths from 100 MHz to 1.0 GHz.

Takuya Furuta, InfiniiVision product manager at Keysight’s Oscilloscope and Protocol Division, said, “Touch going mainstream. It is not only pervasive—it’s expected.” In addition, he said, zone triggering is going mainstream as signals become more complex. Faced with glitches, no monotonic edges, metastable edges, or a combination of these anomalies, he said, engineers must identify a problem and verify that it truly exists, they must isolate the problem waveform from good waveforms, and they must collect related facts to find the root cause.

“Touch, discover, solve” is the phrase Furuta uses to describe the X-Series scope capabilities. The 8.5-inch touchscreen combines with zone triggering and a 1-M waveform/s update rate to help users discover troubling phenomena, and six-in-one upgradeable instruments and gated FFT time-/frequency-domain correlation enable users to solve the problems. Four annotation functions simplify documentation. He emphasized the importance of update rate because “… if you can’t see the problem, you can’t fix the problem.”

In addition to being an oscilloscope, the instrument offers digital channels (MSO functionality) and protocol analysis capability, and it includes a digital voltmeter, a WaveGen function/arbitrary waveform generator, and an eight-digit hardware counter/totalizer.

Furuta also highlighted the ease-of-use of zone triggering. The traditional method, he pointed out, involves a 14-step process that includes determining what trigger (level, rise time, or pulse width, for instance) makes the most sense for the signal you want to isolate, select and move cursors, select the trigger type from a menu, select when you want to trigger, and adjust threshold levels. You repeat the process if the trigger type you chose doesn’t give you useful results. With zone triggering, you simply draw a box around a nonmonotonic edge, for example, and select “must intersect.”

The InfiniiVision 3000T X-Series includes 100-MHz, 200-MHz, 350-MHz, 500-MHz, and 1-GHz models. The standard configuration for all models features 4 Mpoints of memory, segmented memory, advanced math, and 500-MHz passive probes. Keysight InfiniiVision 3000T X-Series oscilloscopes are available today starting at $3,350 for a 100-MHz model with two analog channels; a 1-GHz model with four analog and 16 digital channels costs $15,400.

Multifunction enhancements

I earlier mentioned Teledyne LeCroy’s touchscreen WaveSurfer 3000, introduced last summer with 200-MHz and 500-MHz models. In the fall, the company added a 750-MHz model, and in January the company introduced additional multi-instrument capabilities (Figure 3), including CAN and LIN trigger and decode capabilities for the protocol analyzer—thereby supporting analysis and debug of automotive systems using the CAN, LIN, or both serial data communication standards. Users can correlate physical-layer signals and protocol-layer data on a single display. The CAN and LIN trigger can isolate frame IDs, specific data packets, remote frames, and error frames. The decodes use a color-coded overlay that clearly identifies different parts of the data being captured, allowing the user to quickly identify different parts of the CAN and LIN data such as frame IDs, status bits, and message data.

Other new multi-instrument features include arbitrary waveform generation capabilities added to the WaveSource function generator to enable the import of .csv files (saved from an oscilloscope or offline waveform-creation software) to recreate analog waveforms. These arbitrary waveforms then can be controlled, manipulated, and output directly from the WaveSurfer for use in closed-loop circuit analysis.

New DVM capabilities activate an integrated four-digit digital voltmeter and five-digit frequency counter that operate through the same probes already attached to the oscilloscope channels. This feature provides real-time measurements that can be viewed on the screen at all times, even when the oscilloscope is not triggering. The DVM option is offered as a free software download for all WaveSurfer 3000 users.

Reference

1. Lecklider, T., “Thought-controlled scopes further delayed,”

EE-Evaluation Engineering, January 2015.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Keithley Instruments
Keysight Technologies
Rohde & Schwarz
Teledyne LeCroy