Thermo simulation to start hardware qualification

In our last post we spoke about hardware qualification and the multiple tests that were undertaken to make sure the functionality and performances of our digitizers were sustainable in all types of physical environments. One of our key competitive advantage is the small footprint of our modules which renders the qualification even harder especially when it comes to the temperatures that are registered within our products. It’s even more true that we are now adding on-board processing with FPGA’s on all our new designs. That’s the reason why we are now simulating the thermal behavior of a functioning digitizer when we are testing a new mechanical design. The simulation helps us avoid to come up with prototypes that would not wot be functional and at the same time the testing of our prototypes enhance the simulation parameters which is really a key to shorten our development processes. You will find here the result of the simulation done on one of our next PCIe release and please contact us if you would like to learn more about our thermo simulation 

In what digitizer qualification testing is important?

Agilent is especially keen to deliver high quality electronic measurement instruments or components. Therefore a new product will only be qualify if a certain number of tests have been conducted on a certain number of new finalized product’s units. Some qualification tests are of course industry standards but around half of them are called by Agilent itself in order to guarantee the functionalities of a product under all types of physical conditions. Here is a gross listing of what types of testing are done:

TDPAC spectrometer with Agilent U1071A

T. A. Webb, Leo Nikkinen Juan Gallego D. H. Ryan from Department of Physics, McGill University, published in October 12 an article available through Springer Link at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10751-+012-0663-y where they, as quoted in the abstract:  present a simplified digital time differential perturbed γ − γ angular correlation (TDPAC) spectrometer that demonstrates that such instruments can be built using primarily commercial components and with relatively modest coding effort. The system handles data rates of 70 kcps/detector with a timing resolution of better than 500 ps, and has been used with both ¹¹¹In and ¹⁸¹Hf. This instrument was built using U1071A digitizers. 

Best in test #6: processing with Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA’s

Hello Giovanni, we are pleased to receive you today. You are FPGA developer and along with what has been exposed lately on this blog, some serious innovations were brought in and around the on-board data processing units (DPU) or more commonly called FPGA’s that the M9703A carries (the M9703A counts no less than 4 Xilink Virtex-6  FPGA’s each unit supporting the on-board signal processing of 2 channels).

Giovanni, before we start could you please briefly describe your background?

Well, I have a Master of Science in Digital Electronic from University of Pisa in Italy.