Blogs
Acoustic Engineering with Stimulus Response System
Acoustic Engineering with Stimulus Response System Customer Case The performance of music without electrical amplification requires precise acoustic engineering of its venues. A customer advises concerning large-scale renovations to existing cathedrals, concert halls and opera houses. Renovations may include decoupling the structure from its surroundings to minimize outside noise and redesigning the interior in order to optimize echo patterns. Buildings are acoustically characterized with precision sound equipment. A sound Stimulus, S(t), is generated by a loudspeaker and the Response, R(t) is received by a microphone, where t is time. Usually, the loudspeaker and microphone are positioned at the musician [...]
Network Integrated Circuit (IC) Testing
Network Integrated Circuit (IC) Testing Customer Case A customer makes Integrated Circuit (IC) chips that are used in home network systems. These systems can communicate with many different electronic devices by using the standard 120 Volt, 60 Hz AC household wiring to transmit signals throughout the house. This eliminates the need for extra wiring. They need to test their IC chips before selling them to the company who builds the network systems. They need to test the bit failure rate, the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), chip sensitivity and noise indifference. For these tests, they require a programmable analog [...]
Automotive Engine Controller Monitoring
Automotive Engine Controller Monitoring Customer Case The customer is a major electronics manufacturer who wants to find a cost effective replacement to VXI digitizers in testing automotive engine control signals. The requirement is for several ATE stations. Each one will require 4 single-ended channels or 2 "true differential" channels, 4 MHz of input analog bandwidth (mostly single shot) with voltage ranges from 0.05 to 70 volts. The digitizers must have at least 12 bits of vertical resolution, 0.5% accuracy and ½ MegaSample per channel of acquisition memory. The customer would like to operate the station under a controlling LabVIEW [...]
Fiber Optic Automated Measurement System
Fiber Optic Automated Measurement System Customer Case The customer is in the business of developing lasers and LED components for fiber optic data \ telecommunications applications. The requirement is for an automated test system to monitor the pulse characteristics of the laser. The customer will require 3 channels at high vertical resolution due to the fact that some variances in amplitude will be only 1 mV and need to be detected. The goal is to capture 10,000 samples per channel at 50 MegaSamples per second with a 1 KHz to 5 KHz Pulse Repeat Frequency (PRF). The customer would [...]
Digital ASIC Device Testing
Digital ASIC Device Testing Customer Case The customer wants to test the design of their ASIC devices. To test their IC, they need to stimulate the IC with a particular bit-pattern many times. They call each pattern period a "view". During each view, they need to collect data from the IC. The IC is not purely digital, so the IC output data is not the same for each view, although the stimulus pattern is the same for each view. The stimulus pattern must be "real-time" during a view, but there can be arbitrary delay or dead-time between views. They [...]
Google Scholar
Visit and View "GaGe Digitizer" on Google Scholar Visit and View "GaGe Applied Technologies" on Google Scholar Google Scholar is a dedicated search site for scholarly literature that includes academic research papers, technical articles, patents, and more. Use the above links to review results of all articles in which GaGe products and services have been cited for various applications in fields such as: Wideband Signal Analysis RADAR Design and Test Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) LIDAR Systems Communications Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Mass Spectroscopy Ultrasound Imaging Time of Flight (TOF) Life Sciences [...]
TESTING CHARGE AMPLIFIER GAIN AND FREQUENCY RESPONSE WITH A SIGNAL GENERATOR
[Application Note 40518] Piezoelectric transducers produce small electrical charges in response to pressure. Their sensitivity, ruggedness, and stability at high temperatures make them an essential building block of many accelerometers and pressure sensors. Applications include turbine vibration measurement (accelerometers) and combustion dynamics monitoring (pressure sensors). Typically, the high-impedance charge output produced by a piezoelectric transducer must be conditioned and amplified before transmission across system cabling to the data acquisition and measurement instrumentation. This conversion is accomplished with a device called a charge amplifier. Problem Over time, a charge amplifier’s signal response can drift. Damage to the charge amplifier or associated [...]
THICKNESS INFORMATION OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Composite materials consist of two or more materials which include a substrate or base material such as paper, cotton cloth, or glass cloth along with a resin or adhesive such as epoxy, melamine, or silicone. To make a thermoset laminate, the base material is coated with the adhesive so that layers of material can be pressed under heat and pressure into sheet form. The Problem: Composite material thickness needed to be verified prior to forming or machining. Due to the size of the sheets typical measurement techniques were not suitable. A consistent method to accurately measure the board thickness [...]
TIRE TREAD INSPECTION WITH 1D LASER SENSOR
Tire manufacturers wants to satisfy their customers, and protect themselves from liabilities, manufacturers are moving to 100% tire inspection for defects and abnormalities. Defects not only cause potential safety issues but they can also introduce unwanted vibration into the vehicle suspension system. Belts can be overlapped, or not cover the complete tire surface, causing weak or bubbled areas and imbalances. The tread depth can be too shallow, leading to decreased service life. An uneven tire can cause excessive runout and vibration. MTI was approached by a major manufacturer requesting a solution to measure tread depth, runout and blistering. They [...]
TORQUE CONVERTER
Industry Automotive Applications Torque Converter Measurement Type Surface Description Since minute defects in the torque converter casing wall thickness can result in unacceptable and dangerous torque converter expansion, a precision measurement system was needed to measure the impeller hub displacement and thus the torque converter axial displacement. An AC dynamometer would be required to spin the torque converter at a high rate of speed while a fast response hydraulic system is needed to pressurize the converter to pressures up to 150 psi. MTI’s MicroTrak laser sensor was selected because it offered [...]