Articles: Electronics & Computers
Articles: Test & Measurement
Technology Leaders: Electronics & Computers
The SENT (Single Edge Nibble Transmission) bus continues to gain acceptance across the automotive industry and is widely used to transmit high-resolution readings from...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
As signal rates approach 50 Gb/s, bandwidth demand has outpaced conventional circuit boards. Engineers are now turning to PAM4 signaling rather than conventional NRZ as the most...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is the most common way to identify various ailments, especially when the ailment is related to the heart. To perform an ECG, the medical personnel places the leads on the...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Automated Break-Out Box for Use with Low-Cost Spacecraft Integration and Test
Electrical checkout and testing is a critical part of the overall space integration and test flow. Verifying proper harness and connector signal interfaces is key to ensuring component health and overall system functionality. Break-out boxes (BOBs) are used to give...
Articles: Test & Measurement
One important requirement for instruments like oscilloscopes is the ability to detect and trigger on an event of interest within a stream of unsuspicious signals fast and reliably. The quicker a...
Articles: Test & Measurement
Do you see product testing and checking as a necessary evil? Then take some time to change your mind. In the long process from vision to reality of a product, intelligent and efficient testing is indispensable. The...
Articles: Test & Measurement
Touch screens are slowly but surely creeping into every aspect of our day-to-day lives. It’s not unlikely that you wake up to a cellphone alarm, adjust the room temperature on a thermostat, change the radio...
Articles: Test & Measurement
Modern oscilloscopes come equipped with a host of different attributes, and many vendors tout their latest additions as “must have” features. With so many...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Dynamic Range Enhancement of High-Speed Data Acquisition Systems
The innovation is a technique to overcome hardware limitations of common high-speed data acquisition systems in order to be able to measure electronic signals with high dynamic range, wide bandwidth, and high frequency.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Generation of Optical Combs in a WGM Resonator From a Bichromatic Pump
Optical combs generated by a monolithic resonator with Kerr-medium can be used in a number of applications, including orbital clocks and frequency standards of extremely high accuracy, such as astronomy, molecular spectroscopy, and the like. The main difficulty of this...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Digitally Controlled Slot Coupled Patch Array
A four-element array conformed to a singly curved conducting surface has been demonstrated to provide 2 dB axial ratio of 14 percent, while maintaining VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio) of 2:1 and gain of 13 dBiC. The array is digitally controlled and can be scanned with the LMS Adaptive Algorithm...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An improved method and apparatus have been devised for measuring cyclic errors in the readouts of laser heterodyne interferometers that are configured and operated as displacement...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The figure schematically depicts a laboratory setup for determining the optical length of a fiber-optic delay line at a precision greater than that obtainable by use of optical...
Briefs: Information Technology
R4SA for Controlling Robots
The R4SA GUI mentioned in the immediately preceding article is a user-friendly interface for controlling one or more robot(s). This GUI makes it possible to perform meaningful real-time field experiments and research in robotics at an unmatched level of fidelity, within minutes of setup. It provides such powerful...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Bimaterial thermal compensators have been proposed as inexpensive means of preventing (to first order) or reducing temperature-related changes in the resonance frequencies of...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An instrument for rapidly measuring the electric charges and sizes (from ≈1 to ≈100 μm) of airborne particles is undergoing development. Conceived for monitoring atmospheric dust particles on Mars,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A system for mechanical suspension and vibration isolation of a machine or instrument is based on the use of Kevlar (or equivalent aromatic polyamide) cord held in variable tension...
Articles: Test & Measurement
In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of NASA Tech Briefs, our features in 2006 highlight a different technology category each month, tracing the past 30 years of the technology, and continuing with a glimpse...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A circuit that changes an electrical load in a switching time shorter than 0.3 microsecond has been devised. This circuit can be used in testing the regulation characteristics of power-supply...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Stroboscopic Interferometer for Measuring Mirror Vibrations
Stroboscopic interferometry is a technique for measuring the modes of vibration of mirrors that are lightweight and, therefore, unavoidably flexible. The technique was conceived especially for modal characterization of lightweight focusing mirror segments to be deployed in outer space;...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Pulse shepherding (defined below) can be exploited to impress synchronized amplitude-modulation pulses, with durations of the order of picoseconds, onto beams of light with...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A cable-testing apparatus has been designed for use in detecting a short or open circuit in a cable, subject to a special frequency requirement as explained in the next paragraph. This cable tester is...
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