The Inside Story of Pico's 9400 SXRTO

Pico’s RF Business Development Manager Mark Ashcroft introduces the company's SXRTO Sampler Extended Real Time Oscilloscope.

Accelerating SENT Troubleshooting and Debug Using an Oscilloscope

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...

How to Test Devices Used in Optical Communications Systems

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...

ECG Small Signal General and Analysis

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...

Every Measurement Starts with a Trigger

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...

Test it Like da Vinci

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...

The Touch Screen Revolution

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...

Three Things You Can’t Measure if Your Oscilloscope Doesn’t Have Enough Memory

Modern oscilloscopes come equipped with a host of different attributes, and many vendors tout their latest additions as “must have” features. With so many...

Measuring Cyclic Error in Laser Heterodyne Interferometers

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...

Measuring a Fiber-Optic Delay Line Using a Mode-Locked Laser

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...

Bimaterial Thermal Compensators for WGM Resonators

Bimaterial thermal compensators have been proposed as inexpensive means of preventing (to first order) or reducing temperature-related changes in the resonance frequencies of...

Particle-Charge Spectrometer

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,...

Variable-Tension-Cord Suspension/Vibration-Isolation System

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...

30 Years of 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...

Submicrosecond Power-Switching Test Circuit

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...

Generating Synchronized WDM Pulses in a Nonlinear Optical Fiber

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...

Low-Frequency Signal-Pickup Cable Tester

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...