Blogs
Whitepaper: Mastering High Voltage: The Importance of Accurate Test Equipment
Introduction Accurate definition and measurement of critical electrical performance parameters is essential for ensuring the reliability and safety of high-voltage equipment and cabling. For applications which can involve tens of thousands of volts, safety risks are high, as are the demands on the test equipment used to measure the equipment and cables. Proper calibration of the test instruments themselves is critical to achieving the strict performance needs of many equipment types. Calibration results must often meet national and international specific standards and calibration measurements are typically conducted by certified laboratories with traceability to national standards, like [...]
The Answer Vault: GaGe CompuScope Digitizers — Q & A with Dr. Andrew Dawson
Introduction This document explores the advanced features of GaGe CompuScope Digitizers in a variety of applications, featuring insights from Dr. Andrew Dawson. A seasoned physicist and leader, Dr. Dawson holds a Doctorate in experimental solid-state physics from McGill University and has extensive experience in ultrasonic material analysis. As an application engineer for GaGe, his experience has exposed him to a wide variety of digitizer applications, making this a valuable resource for understanding cutting edge advancements in the field. Question 1: Can You Provide some Features of GaGe CompuScope Digitizers that are useful in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) applications? [...]
Did You Know? GaGe Digitizers in Military & Aerospace Applications
Introduction High-speed digitizers are indispensable tools in the military and aerospace industries, revolutionizing the way data is captured, processed, and analyzed. These advanced devices enable precise measurement and real-time monitoring of complex systems, from radar and communication systems to electronic warfare and avionics. By converting analog signals into high-resolution digital data at unprecedented speeds, high-speed digitizers enhance the accuracy and efficiency of critical operations, ensuring superior performance and reliability in some of the most unique applications. Unlocking the Skies: Advanced Drone Detection with X-Band Radar With the increasing use of drones across various sectors, there’s a growing [...]
Did You Know? GaGe RazorMax Express Digitizer/Oscilloscope: An Efficient & Cost-Effective Tool for High-Energy Physics Particle Counting Applications
Introduction Figure 1. Examples of photo-mulitiplier tubes, or PMTs (Photo courtesy of Hamamatsu). An important category of experimental physics is nuclear and particle physics, a near synonym for high-energy physics. A broad range of experiments in this domain are classed as scattering experiments in which an incident particle hits a target and the resulting scattered particles are studied. Scattering processes can involve the creation or annihilation of particles. The modern approach to studying scattered particles is to employ particle detectors, devices that detect individual particles impinging upon them. This paper provides an overview of typical instruments [...]
Whitepaper: What Defines Performance in High-Speed Digitizers
Introduction Today’s advanced, PC-based digitizers for high-speed data acquisition are necessary for myriad applications – ranging from signal analysis, lidar, ultrasound imaging and non-destructive testing, to communications, particle physics, mass spectroscopy and more. This article highlights how digitizers are unique and describes the unique performance parameters engineers should use when selecting a high-speed digitizer. Digitizers Cater to In-Process Signal Testing While digitizers and Digital Storage Oscilloscopes (DSOs) both use Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) chips as their core electronics they are different tools. The DSO is optimized for the probing and visualization of signals that are typically encountered on [...]
Case-In-Point: MTI Turbine Vibration Analyzer/Balancing System Technology Principles
What do you think when you’re flying home, cruising at 30,000 feet and the drinks have just been served? Our engineers think about the ripple in the glass. That ripple signals vibration and is an indication that the engine may be in need of a balance.
Article: High-Performance Digitizers in Semiconductor Manufacturing Applications
High-Performance Digitizers in Semiconductor Manufacturing Applications PC-based high-speed, high-resolution digitizers perform critical data acquisition functions during semiconductor fabrication, die packaging, and final chip testing. Introduction Data acquisition is a critical element of quality control and compliance testing during three stages of semiconductor manufacture. The first stage is fabrication, in which single-crystal semiconductor wafers are subject to various operations that leave them imprinted with micro-circuitry patterns. During the second stage, the wafers are diced up into individual silicon “die” that are packaged into final chips. The third stage involves functional testing of the final chips to [...]
MTI Instruments Whitepaper: Capacitance Guide for Industrial Applications
Capacitance Guide for Industrial Applications This guide from MTI Instruments explains what you need to know about using electrical capacitance for measurement in industrial applications, including advanced manufacturing. Basic Principles Capacitance is the ratio of the change in an electric charge to the corresponding change in its electrical potential (i.e., voltage). Capacitors, components that that have the “capacity” to store an electric charge, consist of conductive parallel plates that don’t touch or connect with each other. Instead, these metal plates are electrically-separated by air or a layer of insulating material (i.e., the dielectric). MTI’s [...]
GaGe Whitepaper: Use of a PC-Based Digitizer in a Medical Acoustic Microscopy System
Use of a PC-Based Digitzer in a Medical Acoustic Microscopy System By Andrew Dawson, Ph. D-GaGe (a Vitrek brand) Introduction ABSTRACT: Construction of a medical acoustic microscopy system is discussed with focus upon usage of a PC-based high-performance GaGe RazorMax digitizer. Three main aspects of the RazorMax’s operation are addressed: usage of Dynamic Range Expansion (DRE) to maximize the detectability of small ultrasonic echoes, high-speed PCI Express Data Streaming for the fastest scanning speed and usage of GaGe’s Trigger Out signal for efficient and synchronous ultrasonic triggering. Conventional ultrasonic imaging [...]
GaGe Whitepaper: Ground-Breaking Lightning Study Uses GaGe Razor Express High-Speed Digitizer
Ground-Breaking Lightning Study Uses GaGe Razor Express High-Speed Digitizer By Gerald Allgaier, GaGe (a Vitrek brand) Introduction Razor Express digitizer is an integral part of VHF broadband interferometer designed to investigate high-energy radiation from lightning strikes and multi-stroke positive cloud-to-ground flashes. A doctoral dissertation published in 2022 by Michelle Urbani, a PhD candidate at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech describes the development of a VHF broadband interferometer to investigate and better understand unsolved lightning phenomena [1]. Very high frequency (VHF) is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) designation for radio [...]








