Instruments Race To Stay Abreast Of Advances In Fiber Optics

By Stephen Grossman, November 25, 2002

It weighs in at a scant one ounce per kilometer. Yet just one fiber-optic strand, smaller than a human hair, can carry all the telephone traffic in the U.S. at the peak busy period of the year. With such credentials, it's understandable why fiber is...

Fiber Optics' Ascendance In Digital Transport Networks

By Stephen Grossman, November 25, 2002

Whenever a technology is in the early stages of evolution, a mélange of mostly uncoordinated changes involving specs and data rates, among others, is par for the course. Fiber-optic transport networks are no exception. They descended from...

DSOs Tackle The Challenges Of Faster, More Complex Designs

By Stephen Grossman, July 08, 2002

Like an octopus, the oscilloscope on today's design bench must sprout multiple tentacles, reaching out to monitor signals in many parts of a circuit and displaying the measured values all at once—with all events synchronized to a common time...

Instruments Play New Roles On The Benchtop And The Desktop, Too

By Stephen Grossman, June 10, 2002

Like a fine bouillabaisse, instruments are being blended with software, and what's emerging from the caldron is both evolutionary and revolutionary. The evolution is, as we would expect, driven by the continuing upward spiral of frequency and data...

FFT Brings Spectrum Analysis To The Scope

By Stephen Grossman, April 29, 2002

Many of today's digital oscilloscopes include fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) capability for frequency-domain analysis. This feature is especially valuable for oscilloscope users who have limited or no access to a spectrum analyzer, yet occasionally...

Spectrum Analyzers Answer Call For Speed

By Stephen Grossman, April 29, 2002

The easiest way to envision a spectrum analyzer is to begin with an oscilloscope that plots magnitude versus time. Then swap frequency for time—and voilà—a spectrum analyzer! A gross simplification perhaps, but no one...

Shopping For A Logic Analyzer

By Stephen Grossman, April 01, 2002

How many signals do you need to capture and analyze? Be sure to take into account all of the buses and signals that you must acquire simultaneously. A logic analyzer's channel count maps directly on a one-for-one basis with the number of signals that...

Logic And Protocol Analyzers Acquire More Muscle

By Stephen Grossman, April 01, 2002

For designers of telecommunications and wireless products, the challenge is to choose an appropriate mix of instruments for analysis and debug, and the move is to logic and protocol analyzers. Fledgling digital system designs are still plagued by...

Test & Measurement: Introduction/Logic, Bus & Protocol Analyzers

By Stephen Grossman, January 07, 2002

Telecom And Wireless Drive Performance FOR DECADES, TEST AND MEASUREMENT (T&M) has shouldered the burden of a broad range of diverse and complex tasks in the life of every electronic product—from its...

Test & Measurement: Oscilloscopes

By Stephen Grossman, January 07, 2002

Oscilloscopes Ramp Up WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, THE physics teacher brought out the Dumont oscilloscope whenever it came time to discuss electricity. I don't recall its model number, and the demise of Dumont is...

Test & Measurement: Handhelds

By Stephen Grossman, January 07, 2002

Portable Instruments Have Become A Real Handful Say the word "handheld," and many of us picture an analog volt-ohm-milliammeter with a set of leads. That's because we've traditionally held meager expectations for

Test & Measurement: Automated Test Equipment

By Stephen Grossman, January 07, 2002

Test Manufacturers Fight Fire With Fire Automatic test equipment (ATE) is a huge umbrella-like term sheltering device test, board test (both unloaded and loaded), and system test. Rising silicon transition speeds and

Next-Generation Products Going Display-Centric

By Stephen Grossman, December 17, 2001

When it comes to the notion of "embedded," the microprocessor may have to renounce its sovereignty and share its scepter with the flat-panel display. The reason is simply that embedded may soon connote displays as well as microprocessors. When a...

Examples Of New Controller Chips For High-Resolution Displays

By Stephen Grossman, December 17, 2001

TDR Detects Defects In BGA Packages

By Stephen Grossman, June 04, 2001

TDA Systems Inc. of Portland, Ore., is developing a time domain reflectometry (TDR) software prototype for detecting defects in ball-grid-array (BGA) IC packages. TDR measurement is recognized as an effective, nondestructive method for fault...

Extreme-Ultraviolet Lithography Shrinks Silicon-Wafer Patterns To 0.03 μm

By Stephen Grossman, June 04, 2001

The first full-scale prototype machine for making ICs by using extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light has been completed, proving that the technology works. This breakthrough should lead to microprocessors that are 10 times faster than today's devices, as...

Electronic Licensing Systems Thwart Piracy

By Stephen Grossman, May 21, 2001

The software market seems to be virtually bulletproof, invulnerable to the slackening in other sectors of the U.S. economy. Software sales are expected to surge from $200 billion in 2001 to $235 billion in 2002 (...

OLEDs And CLCDs Each Seek Their Niche

By Stephen Grossman, May 21, 2001

OLEDs: Flat-panel displays made with the new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology consume roughly 75% less power than backlit LCDs. The OLED display is emissive, so it is sharp and highly viewable, even in bright sunlight. Perhaps...

Software Development Kits Speed MPEG-4 Product Designs

By Stephen Grossman, May 07, 2001

The term streaming media is on everyone's lips today. While content providers are eager to boost revenues, potential users hope to download movies of their choice from the Web instead of driving to a local video store. Such visions can now be...

Ferroelectric Microdisplays Enlist In A New Defense Application

By Stephen Grossman, April 30, 2001

A reflective, ferroelectric LCD microdisplay will play a major role in a pair of simulator optics subsystems in the latest version of the Starstreak Self-Propelled Air Defence Weapon System, used by the British Army. The first of these subsystems...