Testtek

Source: http://testtek.com/en/detail-info.php?id=2145 It is practical to characterise charge/discharge cycles of rechargeable batteries using an SMU (single-source measurement unit), writes Mary Anne Tupta from Keithley Instruments.  Rechargeable batteries are commonly characterised using charge/discharge cycling, which provides useful information on internal chemistry, capacity, usable cycles, and lifetime. In production, this technique is often used to verify if a battery meets specifications and isn’t defective. A charge/discharge test setup often includes a programmable power supply, an electronic load, a voltmeter, and an ammeter. However, battery testing can be simplified by using a single source measure unit (SMU) instrument, which can source/sink current and measure voltage and current. Rates for constant current charging and discharging are defined in terms of the battery’s capacity, i.e., the amount of charge it can store. Capacity, specified ...

Source:  http://www.testtek.com/en/detail-info.php?id=2144 NI PXIe-8880 embedded controller with Intel Xeon processor exposed and 2-8 GB RAM upgrades. A large misconception is that test data is purely pass/fail, but in reality this could not be further from the truth. The approach of traditional, fixed-functionality instruments is to send only the results back to the host PC of a test system. This results in much of the signal processing being hidden from the user within the box of the instrumentation. The speed of this signal processing is determined by the speed of the processor on board the instrument. This is especially true for signal processing intensive measurements, such as RF, sound and vibration, and waveform-based acquisitions. Considering even the fastest FFT-based spectrum analysers on the market, only 20 percent of their measurement time is actually spent acquiring the signal, the remaining 80+ percent is spent processing the signal for the given algorithm....

Source: http://testtek.com/en/detail-info.php?id=2143 The next generation 5G mobile phone technologies will be the first to make extensive use of modular test and design platforms for its development. The scale of the signal processing required for the multi-gigabit radio channels expected to be needed for 5G, will need highly scalable systems for development and simulation. With technical specifications not expected to be finalised for another year or so, there is also a need for configurable systems. As a result a modular platform such as PXI is being adopted in the early design for 5G systems both in the UK and Germany. LabView is used to map design algorithms directly onto the FPGA. The advantage of LabView is that is gives a high-level representation of the compiler and low-level FPGA design. 5G starts with the creation of 4G standards, so the development software must retain compliance with previous standards. Lessons have been learnt from...