ElectronıcsWeekly

27 April - 3 May 2011 | No. 2465 | ElectronicsWeekly.com

Shedding light
on LEDs
TESTING LED-BASED LUMINAIRES: HOW CAN
MANUFACTURERS GET TO GRIPS WITH LEDS
VARIABLE COLOUR TEMPERATURES PAGE 12

Going with the flow

SCIENTISTS USE CURRENT FLOW TO PRODUCE SPIN
CURRENT IN GRAPHENE PAGE 10

Faster measurements using SCPI

OPTIMISING RF POWER MEASUREMENT SPEED THROUGH
UNDERSTANDING SCPI INSTRUCTIONS PAGE 18

Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy
Apple is suing Samsung, claiming
that its mobile phone and tablet
product lines copy technology from
Apple’s iPad and iPhone devices.
In a lawsuit filed at the US District
Court for the Northern District of
California, Apple alleges Samsung’s
Galaxy smartphones and tablet
design features violate its trademarks
and patents.
www.apple.com
France to make 3D wafers
CEA-Leti is moving toward pilot
production of 3D semiconductor
structures on 300mm wafers at its
research centre in Grenoble, France.
CEA-Leti has installed fabrication
tools supplied by EV Group in its first
300mm cleanroom dedicated to R&D
and prototyping for 3D-integration
applications. The initial aim will
be research and development and
prototyping, but the lithography
and packaging systems will have
the capability for low-volume pilot
production on 300mm wafers.
www.leti.fr
Apple profits up 95%
Apple made a $5.99bn (£3.6bn) profit
on sales of $24.67bn in Q1, profit
was up 95% and sales up 83% on
the same quarter last year. “We will
continue to innovate on all fronts
throughout the remainder of the
year,” said company CEO, Steve Jobs.
www.apple.com
Nokia profits slump on slow Q1
Nokia saw its profit halved in Q1
compared with Q4, and its Q1
revenues fell 18% compared with
Q4 revenues. The number of mobile
phones sold in the quarter – 108.5
million – was down 12% on Q4.
www.nokia.com
OLED driver for Lenovo phone
Dialog Semiconductor is supplying
its DA8620 passive matrix OLED
driver to Lenovo for the S800
colour feature phone. The S800 is
the first commercial phone to offer
a transparent colour display, said
Dialog, using its SmartXtend brand
driver technology.
www.dialog-semiconductor.com
Intel Q1 profits up 29%
Boosted by revenues and profits from
the McAfee and Infineon wireless
division acquisitions, Intel recorded
Q1 net profits of $3.2bn (£1.9bn),
up 29% on Q1 2010. Revenues of
$12.8bn were up 25% from Q1 2010.
Operating income increased by 21%.
Sales of chips for mobile, embedded
applications and communications
were $1.15bn.
www.intel.com
ElectronicsWeekly.com
the week in electronics
EDITOR’S CHOICE PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
On-chip security manager
BLOG WATCH
Microwave firm eyes export hopes
SEMICONDUCTORS
So manufacturing is good, again?
Samsung closes gap on Intel
Samsung, the No.2 chip-maker,
continues to close the gap on Intel,
the No.1 chip-maker, by taking 9.2%
of the world chip market in 2010
compared to Intel’s 13.3%, says
IHS iSuppli. In 2001, Intel’s market
share at 14.9% was more than three
times that of Samsung at 3.9% when
Samsung ranked fifth.
www.samsung.com
Acal sales up 17% in Q4
Acal has seen strong sales growth in
the past three months, driven by its
electronics distribution business. In
a trading update for its year ended 31
March 2011 the distributor reported
that fourth quarter like-for-like sales
increased by 17% year-on-year.
“We continue to see good trading
conditions in the electronics division
across Europe,” said Nick Jefferies,
group chief executive.
www.acalplc.co.uk
19nm NAND samples in April
Toshiba and SanDisk will sample
19nm NAND flash from the end
of this month, and plan to mass
produce it in Q3. The first product
to be made on the 19nm process is a
64Gbit multi-level cell flash memory.
www.toshiba.com
Distributor adds scopes
RS Components has extended
its distribution agreement with
Tektronix to cover a wider range
of oscilloscopes. The distribution
channel is dramatically growing in
importance for test system suppliers
as they bid to expand their markets
with mid and low cost scopes and
meters. RS will add to its catalogue
the MSO/DPO3000 and MSO/
DPO4000B series scopes.
uk.rs-online.com
Copier chips from Wolfson
Wolfson has announced a range of
analogue front-end digitiser chips
for digital copiers and scanners. Part
of the firm’s imaging portfolio, the
WM8232, WM8233, WM8234 and
WM8235 process and digitise the
analogue output signals from CCD
sensors or contact image sensors.
www.wolfsonmicro.com
Europe’s smart meter standards
The telecoms standards body
and the European Association of
the Electricity Transmission and
Distribution Equipment and Services
Industry (T&D Europe) have signed
a Memorandum of Understanding
to collaborate on the development
of ETSI standards for smart-grid
highlighting the importance of
standardisation in smart metering.
www.etsi.org
27 APRIL - 3 MAY 2011 EW | 3
news
POWER

Electrolytic capacitor-free power

architecture for solar inverters
ambridge-based solar

C inverter firm Enecsys has

revealed details of a novel
power architecture, which
eliminates the need to use electro-
lytic capacitors, thereby increasing
reliability.
The firm’s designs are intended to
be fixed to the back of solar panels,
producing 240V 50Hz directly. They
are called micro-inverters by the
solar industry to distinguish them
from larger remote-mounted invert- A boost first stage and ripple-tolerant buck second stage allow non-electrolytic DC link capacitors to be used
ers that take power from a string of
solar panels.
Direct mounting means micro-
inverters have to operate at high “The various bits of the topology where the high voltage plus the rip-
ambient temperature, and if they are known. It is the configuration of ple tolerance of the second stage
contain electrolytic capacitors these the three stages that no one has done mean that only 30μF is needed to
will cause the inverter to fail well before,” Enecsys founder and chief deliver 240W at the output – a value
before the panel’s predicted 25-year architect Dr Lesley Chisenga told that can be made from film capacitors
life, said Enecsys.
With a patented topology, the firm
has eliminated electrolytics and has
Electronics Weekly.
The first stage is a boost converter
that produces a DC link voltage of up

without resorting to electrolytics.
Custom capacitors have been sourced
simply to keep the profile of the
instead moved to film capacitors, to 600V. This is followed by a second micro-inverter below 30mm.
custom-made by Epcos (TDK-EPC), stage, a current output buck converter The third stage is a bridge switch
rated at 30,000 hours MTBF. which is tolerant of up to 120V of which flips the polarity of every sec-
 ond cosine pulse to produce a 50Hz
sine wave.
To remove the need for opto-




  isolators, which the firm claims is the



 next most damaging component for
MTBF, galvanic safety isolation is
provided by a transformer in the first










 stage where no feedback is required.












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ripple on its input. “Another aspect of
our intellectual property covers the
significant ripple capability of the
second stage,” added Chisenga.
The main energy reservoir capaci-
Enecsys micro-inverter: the custom Epcos film capacitors are blue tor is connected to the 600V DC link,
4 | EW 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011
“This stage uses a half-bridge with
a transformer which has substantial
benefits in terms of efficiency and
simplicity, and it allows us to use
zero-voltage switching for low
losses,” said Chisenga.
The all-important maximum
power point tracking (MPPT) – a
technique which extracts the most
from a solar panel under varying
lighting and temperature conditions
– is provided in the second stage.
Usually MPPT would require a
measure of voltage and current pass-
ing through, but in this case the sig-
nificant ripple on the capacitor
allows rate-of-change-of-voltage
across the capacitor to substitute for
the current measurement.
“Tracking is done on the DC link
component. All the other solar
inverters we know about track on the
load side,” said Chisenga. O
Enecsys
www.enecsys.com
ElectronicsWeekly.com
news
OLED LIGHTING

Organic LEDs move into the big time

with launch of overhead panels
Manufacturers are keen to prove viability of mass production of OLEDs for lighting large areas, writes Steve Bush

urope’s OLED100 research

E project has demonstrated its

largest organic-LED (OLED)
lighting panel. OLED tech-
nology has been identified as the
most attractive alternative to tradi-
tional fluorescent lighting panels,
due to its potential to be low-cost and
power-efficient.
The main goals of the pan-
European OLED research project are
to achieve power efficacy of
100lm/W, a lifetime of 100,000 hours,
with lighting panels measuring
100x100cm2 and costing no more
than €100/m².
This latest OLED panel, which
measures 33cmx33cm and with an
active area of 828cm², was developed
by the project partners and made at
Fraunhofer IPMS on an in-line pre-
pilot tool.
“We intended to show that we can
up-scale to larger areas in a process
that is mass manufacture-
compatible,” OLED100 project man-
ager Stefan Grabowski told Electron-
ics Weekly.
Lifetime testing is still under way,
and predicted lifetime from 1,000cd/
m², wearing to 700cd/m², is well be-
yond 1,000 hours so far, said Over 20% of EU electricity consumption is for lighting but better adoption of OLED systems could cut greenhouse gas emissions
Grabowski.
Techniques include screen print-
ing the metallisation for contacts and
bus bars on to the glass substrate. Efficacy is more than 25lm/W, not the EU is used for lighting. “The en- adoption of OLED lighting could ac-
However, not all the processes are enough for lighting, but impressive ergy used to supply lighting produces tually result in a decrease in green-
quite so factory-ready and at the mo- for an OLED. High efficiency OLEDs greenhouse gases equal to 70% of the house gas emissions,” said
ment the device has a cavity glass lid are another thread in the project, emissions from all the world’s pas- Grabowski.
to keep oxygen and moisture from which will eventually be combined senger cars,” he said. OLED100.eu is a pan-European re-
the vulnerable OLED and electrode with the large area processing, said “Our project will deliver OLED search project working on the devel-
materials. “We are working on thin- Grabowski. lighting that is at least seven times opment of OLED technologies. It re-
film encapsulation, which is cheap- According to Grabowski over 20% more efficient than conventional in- ceived funding of €12.5m (£11m)
er,” said Grabowski of all the electric power consumed in candescent lighting. Widespread from the European Community’s
Seventh Framework Programme to
form the technological basis for effi-
cient OLED applications for the gen-
eral lighting industry in Europe.
Philips has recently introduced a
commercial OLED lighting panel
measurung 70mmx70mm. Called the
Lumiblade Plus, the panel has an ef-
ficiency of 45lm/W, which improves
on the 12lm/W of previous panels. It
costs €120. O

Oled100.eu
www.oled100.eu

6 | EW 27 APRIL - 3 MAY 2011 ElectronicsWeekly.com

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nodes.
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lessly-powered sensor system could
save users 40-50% over the installed
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systems,” said Harry Ostaffe,
vice-president of marketing and
business development at
Powercast. The firm’s WSG-101
BAS Gateway can scale up to
100 sensor nodes and 800 sensor
points for large-scale
deployment.
The gateway interfaces to
wired BAS networks via
industry-standard protocols,
including BACnet, Modbus,
Metasys, and LonWorks.
The sensors and gateway use
data links at 2.4GHz using
802.15.4 radios, which users can
set to channels that will not
interfere with, nor be interfered
with by, Wi-Fi networks.
Powercast has also teamed
with microcontroller supplier  


Microchip and Texas Powercast
Instruments to offer a design kit for www.powercastco.com

ElectronicsWeekly.com 27 APRIL - 3 MAY 2011 EW | 7

news
3D
Glasses-free
3D laptop
due in July
oshiba is to launch a glasses-
T free 3D notebook on the
Japanese market in July. Called
‘dynabook Osmio’, the notebook will
be able to display 3D and 2D content,
while at the same time allowing users
to simultaneously work and play
games.
3D images are created using paral-
lax, by delivering separate images to
the left and right eyes. This produces
3D images if the separate images are
properly delivered to each eye.
Toshiba has adopted a distinctive
‘face-tracking’ function and ‘Active
Lens’ to fulfil this requirement.
Face-tracking allows the web cam-
era integrated into the notebook to
track the user’s face and recognise the
position of the eyes.
Active Lens, integrated into the
LED panel, controls the polarization
of light delivered from the panel.
These functions secure precise de-
livery of separate images to each eye,
even when the user moves.
The computer uses an image proc-
essor derived from the multi-core
technology of the Cell processor.
An image-processing algorithm
called Face3D uses face detection
technology to locate faces in 2D
images and then applies a human
depth template to the image, giving
the features more depth and assuring
a 3D appearance with graded
shading. O
Toshiba
www.toshiba.com
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8 | EW 27 APRIL - 3 MAY 2011
SECURITY
Palm reader can
make PCs secure
ujitsu claims to have de-
F signed the smallest contact-
free palm-print authentica-
tion sensor which can be
used for biometric authentication
in PCs.


Existing palm print authentication
technology requires a person’s palm
to be held motionless over a device in
order to capture an image of the
palm. The sensor includes an image-

But it is still a shock to be told that
capture system that continuously
captures the user’s palm print at 20
frames per second.
The sensor also has the capability Integrated Excellence
of identifying the best image from as standard
among those it has captured and au-
tomatically verifying it.
Weybridge%msc-ge.com
Tel. 01932 268990
www.msc-ge.com
“This allows users to perform au-
thentication by simply placing their
palm lightly over the sensor, rather
than holding their hand motionless
over the sensor, as before,” said
Fujitsu.
According to the company, com-
pared to fingerprints, the distinctive
features of palm prints are more nu-
merous and create more complex
patterns, resulting in a higher volume
of data.
PCs may get biometric security As a result the system’s recognition
accuracy results in a false-negatives
rate of 0.01% and a false-positives
rate of 0.00008%.
The sensor is 29.0mm wide,
11.2mm tall, and 29.0mm thick.
The design is based on a photo-
graphic optical system that is half as
thick as previous models.
The smaller size is important be-
cause it increases the range of devices
into which the sensor can be de-
signed, according to Fujitsu.
Biometric authentication is in-
creasingly being used in ID cards and
based on unique personal character-
istics. O
Fujitsu
wwww.fujitsu.com
MANNERISMS BLOG
Will fabs
ever be built
in Africa?
aybe there is a psychologi-
M cal synergy between chip
manufacturing and earth-
quakes. Semiconductor design and
manufacture is an unpredictable
business, while people in seismically
active areas live with uncertainty,
and Silicon Valley was spawned in
an earthquake zone.
90% of the world’s pure-play foun-
dry capacity is in seismically sensi-
tive regions. And that all the fabs in
Japan, Taiwan and China are in earth-
quake-prone areas.
IC Insights, the Arizona analyst,
came up with these findings while
posing the thought: ‘The March 11,
2011 Japan earthquake might just be
the wake-up call that spurs the entire
electronics supply chain to create
new contingency plans, just in case...’
If just the Hsinchu fabs went
down, says IC Insights, the world-
wide electronics systems industry
would lose $10bn in sales.
This is hairy stuff. Will it change
the industry’s thinking? Thirty years
ago earthquakes were seen as just one
of many risks, and by no means a pri-
ority. Nowadaysit may just sway a
fab-siting decision. After all, labour
cost is low compared to capital cost.
Africa is, apparently, the least seis-
mically active continent, because the
edges of the tectonic plate under Afri-
ca are the furthest distance away –
particularly to the West.
That points to the Sahara (pic-
tured). The Sahara has two other adv-
natages: it sits on the world’s largest
fossil aquifer and has a lot of sun, so
the two prime necessities for fabs –
water and electricity – are abundant.
But could the Saharans stump up
the billion dollars in grants, loans, tax
concessions, hand-outs and variegat-
ed graft required to get a chip compa-
ny to build a modern fab? O
NASA/REX FEATURES
Mannerisms blog
electronicsweekly.com/mannerisms
ElectronicsWeekly.com
 news
ANALOGUE

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inear Technology has in- The interface between the

L troduced a chip that can

transform DC-DC converters
into fully-featured battery
chargers for any rechargeable battery.
The only restrictions on the converter
LTC4000 and DC-DC converter is
through the converter’s compensa-
tion pin. “It only requires the DC-DC
converter to have a control or exter-
nal-compensation pin, usually
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named VC or ITH, whose voltage
level varies in a positive monotonic  

for external compensation. Dubbed
LTC4000, the chip will handle input
and output voltages from 3-60V and


back-up mediation between the input
supply, battery and load.
“It is capable of driving typical
DC-DC converter topologies, includ-
ing buck, boost, buck-boost, sepic
and flyback,” said Linear. “It prefer-
entially provides power to the system
load when input power is limited,
and controls external pFETs to pro-
vide reverse current protection.”
A feature that allows the load to be
fed the moment external power is ap-
plied, even with a flat or dead battery
connected, is built in. The power
range is “from mW to kW”.
Other features include: +/– 0.2%
programmable float voltage; selecta-
ble timer or C/X current termination;
temperature-qualified charging using
a thermistor; automatic re-charge;
C/10 trickle charge for deeply dis-
charged cells; and bad battery
detection.
The chip preferentially provides
power to the system load when input
power is limited
ElectronicsWeekly.com
way with its output. The output vari-
able can be either output voltage or
output current,” said Linear. """
Because it is connected to the con-
verter’s compensation pin, the chip
includes an amplifier that can com-
pensate the combined circuit using a
discrete resistor and capacitor.
Full parameters and equations are
provided for those who wish to cal-
culate the RC values.
And for those who don’t, there is a
rather neat practical method for itera-
tively deriving the correct values –
first published by the firm in app
note AN19 in 1986(Figure 32) –
involving an oscilloscope, a signal
generator, and a 50Ω resistor.
Operational temperature range is
–40 to 125°C, and the chip comes in a
0.75mm high 28-pin 4x5mm QFN
package or a 28-lead SSOP. O
Web link description
www.linear.com/product/LTC4000
27 APRIL - 3 MAY 2011 EW | 9
research
UK scientists produce spin current
in graphene using current flow
Graphene spintronics gets a boost from University of Manchester scientists, writes Steve Bush

niversity of Manchester

U scientists have found a

way to produce spin cur-
rent – essentially magnet-
ism – in graphene using current flow,
a discovery which could have impli-
cations for graphene spintronics.
Manipulating the flow of conven-
tional current in graphene is straight-
forward.
“Pronounced field effect: the
dependence of the resistivity on
applied gate voltage; was already
demonstrated in first graphene
reports six to seven years ago and
triggered enormous research activity
in the field,” Manchester researcher
Dr Leonid Ponomarenko told
Electronics Weekly.
However, the spin of electrons in
graphene is not easily manipulated.
In their experiment, the research-
ers connected spin and charge by ap-
plying a relatively weak magnetic Researchers connected spin and charge by applying a weak magnetic field to graphene to create a flow of spins.
field to graphene and found that this
causes a flow of spins in the direction
perpendicular to electric current, chance that the other person would “You create a normal current, designing existing spintronics devic-
making a graphene sheet magnetised. feel the flow,” he said. “In our graph- which makes a spin current, which es, and making new ones including
And the induced magnetism ex- ene swimming pool, we use normal propagates across all the graphene spin-based transistors.
tended over macroscopic distances current to make spin current in one and makes a normal current else- “The holy grail of spintronics is the
from the current path without decay. place, and the spin current propagates where,” explained Ponomarenko. conversion of electricity into magnet-
“It is a non-local signal that you across all of the graphene, and makes According to the University, it is be- ism or vice versa,” said University of
would not expect in materials like normal current in another place.” lieved that coupling between the cur- Manchester Professor Andre Geim,
this,” said Ponomarenko. In the experiment, voltage differ- rent and spin will be direct in future one of graphene’s discoverers. “We
Non-local? ences are found well away from the spintronics devices, without using offer a mechanism, thanks to unique
Ponomarenko made an analogy. input current path, so they cannot magnetic materials to inject spins as it properties of graphene. I imagine that
“Imagine a swimming pool with have been induced by normal current is done at the moment in hard drive many venues of spintronics can ben-
one person on each side. If one stirred flow, and the implication is that they heads for example, and that the team’s efit from this finding.”
the water, there would be very little arrive via spin current. discovery offers opportunities for re- www.manchester.ac.uk

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test & measurement
Photometric testing aids luminaire
designers as LEDs replace light bulbs
Robert Yeo of Pro-Lite walks Steve Bush through the basics of testing LED-based luminaires.
here are a lot of companies
T makin LED light fittings, also
known as luminaires.
Most of these firms started
off using incandescent and fluores-
cent light sources, and are having to
get used to working with semicon-
ductors rather than hot wires and
glass.
“We still see customers who put
10x100 lm LEDs into a luminaire and
expect to get 1,000 lm out,” said Rob-
ert Yeo, technical director of optical
test equipment distributor and photo-
metric test house Pro-Lite. “High
temperature, lenses and increased
current all reduce the output of
LEDs.”
Colour is also an issue: white LEDs
are loosely separated into cool, neu-
tral and warm white depending on
how much red they have in their
spectrum, but luminaire makers have
to work in much finer detail than this
if they are to produce attractive and
consistent products.
LED makers test devices as they
come off the production line and sep-
arate them into multiple (beyond just
warm, neutral and cool) ‘colour tem-
perature’ bins that are labelled with
the temperature of a hot filament that
would produce that shade – general-
ly between 3,000 and 6,500Kelvin.
There are also side bins for those
that carry a slight colour tint, and will
consequently be a little cheaper.
And all these are further separated
into intensity bins that tell the cus-
tomer how bright the LED will be for
a given current at a certain tempera-
ture – device temperature has a pro-
found effect on intensity and a no-
Integrating spheres measure the total luminous flux (in lumens) of LEDs, LED modules
and complete luminaires of all sorts. It takes only seconds to measure total light
output and colour. This 1m diameter example is from Labsphere. Much smaller
versions are available.
ticeable effect on colour temperature.
The luminaire maker has to use
LEDs with matched colour tempera-
ture and intensity if its luminairs are
to look the same–or be very clever at
combining multiple side bins to get
the same effect.
Although well understood by LED
manufacturers, all this LED variabili-
ty has caused suspicion among light-
ing manufactures who are used to
buying 60W bulbs that are all the
same.
“There is a body of opinion that
LEDs do not do what they say they
do,” said Yeo. “It is a misunderstand-
ing. It is usually really temperature
issues. The LEDs are specified at
25°C and are being run hotter.”
Temperature confusion is such an
issue that, at last, LED makers are be-
ginning to specify their products at a
more realistic 75 or 85°C.
So, the luminaire maker has two
questions, according to Yeo.
Does the LED or LED module I am
buying do what it is specified to do
when I use it the way I want to use it?
And, what are the photometric
specifications of my finished lumi-
naire so that I can tell my customers.
These are answered by two pieces
of test equipment: and integrating
sphere and a goniophotometer re-
spectively.
“An integrating sphere is a hollow
sphere painted with highly reflective,
very matt paint,” explained Yeo, add-
ing a word of caution for those con-
sidering a DIY approach. “This is not
Dulux vinyl matt, which is only 85%
reflective, but 98-99% reflective
paint.”
The luminaire is suspended inside,
or can shine in through a hole if like a
torch or car headlight it produces a
beam .
Light bounces around inside, illu-
minating the entire internal surface
evenly, so the light sensor, which
protrudes through another hole into
the sphere, gets a reading proportion-
al to the total light inside.
The only other object inside it the
‘baffle’, a small opaque shield that
stops light from the luminair directly
impinging on the sensor.
“In a few seconds the detector can
tell you colour and brightness,” said
Yeo.
He advocates a real sphere.
“The thing about a sphere is that it
has to be a sphere, not a box or a geo-
desic shape,” said Yeo. “A sphere
works by uniformly collecting. I have
seen a geodesic design suffer
The second tool, the goniophotom-
eter, measures luminous intensity in
candelas as a function of angle.
“Once you have got goniophotom-
eter data, it can be put into a standard
photometric data file and the end re-
 


sult is what their customers are look-
 




ing for, so they can design an installa-


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12 | EW 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011 ElectronicsWeekly.com

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Goniophotometers measure luminous intensity (in candelas) as a function of angle

from a luminaire. The resulting data is compiled into standard photometric data in .ies
or .ldt format for lighting designers to feed into their modelling software. Pictured is a
near-field imaging goniophotometer from US firm Radiant Imaging, co-designed with
UK measurement firm Pro-Lite.

The goniophotometer set-up has “This instrument was developed

the luminaire separated from a meas-
uring detector in a dark room. The
separation distance has to be suffi-
cient to allow the luminair to be treat-
ed as a point source. This will be 10,
20 or even 25m depending on the
size of the luminaire.
To extract angular data, either the
luminair stepped through a solid
angle in small increments, or the sen-
sor is moved on a frame.
Measured data is then formatted
using software from firms including
Pro-Lite.
“The lighting industry recognises
two standard formats: .ies or ‘eulum-
dat’ [.ldt format],” said Yeo. “Their
customer can take the file and open it
in their lighting design software and
it will tell them how many lumi-
naires they need to install to get the
lighting they want.”
Goniophotometers need a lot of
room, so two years ago Pro-Lite with
US firm Radiant Imaging developed a

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that didn’t quite exist,” said Yeo.
“With radiant, we figured out that an
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could be used for near-field measure-
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software to do the processing.”
The system, which Yeo claimed
costs “a fraction of the price” of a far-
field goniophotometer and needs
only 2x2m of floor, takes around
1,000 2D pictures of the luminaire
from different angles, then uses ray-
tracing algorithms to calculate the far-
field data.
“We aim to achieve a match within
1% or so,” said Yeo. “Customers usu-
ally have some far-field figures, and
they compare it with our results and
say it is the same.”
And for those that do not want to
buy an integrating sphere or gonio-
photometer, there are photometric
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ElectronicsWeekly.com 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011 EW | 13

4G mobile
The testing challenges of moving to
4G LTE mobile technology
When several architectures develop in parallel interoperability issues must eventually be tackled, writes C Raj Khanna
wo architectures were con-
T sidered by the 3GPP stand-
ards body to support faster
air interface technologies
in the next generation mobile phone
technology – long-term evolution
(LTE) and ultra mobile broadband
(UMB). The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) also de-
veloped its own technology, WiMax,
and began commercialising it as a
broadband wireless alternative.
LTE was the natural choice for op-
erators with legacy GSM/high speed
packet access (HSPA) networks, but
for operators of CDMA or cdma2000
EV-DO networks the decision was
more difficult. The choice of LTE
(and WiMax) as 4G technology posed
a challenge to the CDMA/EV-DO op-
erator community. How to operate
two separate network systems that,
from the ground up, had very little in
common?
CDMA and EV-DO feature air inter-
face technologies, core network ar-
chitectures, service and security in-
terfaces and testing requirements that
are completely different from those of
LTE and WiMax. Mechanisms for
making these legacy networks inter-
operate and converse with 4G tech-
nologies were not even defined in the
standards specifications.
How EV-DO Revision B will work for 4G networks
14 | EW 27 APRIL - 3 MAY 2011
On the device side, the challenges
of implementing two different radio
access technologies were simpler. It
was obvious that it was possible to
integrate an LTE radio with existing
CDMA and EV-DO radio solutions,
even though there were numerous
challenges, such as the absence of
common device testing procedures.
From a network perspective, the
challenges of getting the two systems
to talk to one another were considera-
ble. The “messaging” that each sys-
tem used was different, and until
then there had been no mechanism to
ensure that a call that had initiated
on one network could be successfully
handed off to the other.
The absence of a hand-off mecha-
nism means that a data session
would be interrupted. As a result, Evolution of mobile networks
services such as streaming audio,
video and data transfer would suffer
from transmission interruptions.
To resolve these issues new mecha-
nisms are being introduced to share
messaging between the two systems
so that the air interfaces on the two
networks can interoperate and main-
tain call and service continuity. Ad-
ditions have been made to the speci-
fications for radio access, core
network and system and service, to
make network interoperability and EV-DO Revisio B peak data rates
connectivity possible. For example, if
a data call that is initiated on an oper-
ator’s LTE network needs to be hand-
ed off to its EV-DO network, there are
now defined mechanisms to address
this scenario.
In addition to these extensive new
interoperability architectures, new
specifications are also being written
to develop test plans and require-
ments for devices that operate on
both networks. This is a complex and
daunting technical task, made more
difficult by the fact that the testing
philosophies of the two communities
are considerably different and test
specifications are written in different
formats. O
C Raj Khanna is technology manager at
Rohde & Schwarz.
Rohde & Schwarz
www.rohde-schwarz.co.uk
ElectronicsWeekly.com
test and measurement
Measuring pulsed waveforms with
high-speed A/D converters
Traditional integrating analogue-to-digital converters may offer high accuracy and excellent noise immunity, but the
charge-discharge cycles result in long inter-measurement intervals, writes Mark Cejer
or the growing array of
F products that employ pulsed
signals, including today’s
more energy-efficient ICs,
switching power supplies and inver-
tors, as well as LED modules and
subassemblies, it is important to test
the discrete components that make
up these end products under pulsed
conditions.
Test instruments with only DC
sourcing capabilities can deliver a
level of power to a device that causes
enough heat dissipation to alter its
characteristics. The use of a pulsed
stimulus also demands instrumenta-
tion capable of faster measurements.
Traditional precision source-
measure units (SMUs) are based on
an integrating analogue-to-digital
converter (ADC), which averages the
signal over a certain time interval
known as the integration time.
Figure 1 depicts a simplified dual-
slope integrating ADC, which oper-
ates by charging a capacitor with the
unknown signal, then discharging
the capacitor using a reference volt-
age. The ratio of the charge and dis-
charge times is proportional to the
Figure 1: Dual-slope integrating ADC
Figure 2: Results from integrating versus sampling
(high-speed) ADCs
16 | EW 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011
ratio of the unknown signal to the
reference signal.
Although this ADC technology
offers high accuracy and excellent
noise immunity, the charge-discharge
cycles on the capacitor result in long
inter-measurement intervals (at least
50 microseconds), which can
significantly slow the measurement
process.
High-speed precision
In contrast, high-speed ADCs are
capable of sampling signals at burst
rates of up to 1MHz. Unlike inte-
grating ADCs, these high-speed
ADCs use sampling technology
similar to an oscilloscope, taking
snapshots of the signal over time.
They provide higher resolution than
an oscilloscope (18 bits versus 8 bits),
resulting in more precise transient
characterisation in comparable
bandwidths.
Figure 2 illustrates the difference
in results between integrating and
high-speed ADCs.
Although the high-speed ADC
returns more readings, these meas-
urements are less accurate and less
Figure 3:
(a) measuring at the top of the pulse;
(b) performing a spot mean measurement at the top
of the pulse;
(c) digitising the entire pulse;
(d) triggering measurements to begin before the pulse;
(e) triggering measurement to begin after the pulse
repeatable than those made using the
integrating ADC. For applications
that demand higher throughput, the
lower accuracy can be tolerated, or if
needed, improved by averaging
several readings.
Typically, integrating ADC meas-
urements with integration rates of
0.01PLC or faster can be made with
similar accuracy using a high-speed
ADC. Newer SMU designs that incor-
porate two high-speed ADCs allow
voltage and current to be measured
simultaneously.
With some designs, the combina-
tion of high-speed ADCs and an
advanced trigger model supports
precisely timed measurements on
pulsed signals.
Characterising the slope
For some applications, such as ther-
mal impedance of power diodes and
LEDs, characterising the slope of the
measured voltage at the top of the
pulse is important. This capability is
also useful for characterising pulse
amplitude flatness. The high-speed
ADCs can digitise the top of the pulse
(Figure 3a) when the measurements
are made synchronously with the
source.
Asynchronous triggering is also
useful for performing a spot mean
measurement at the top of a pulse
(Figure 3b).
Often, analysis software is used to
average sampled data to improve
accuracy, but newer SMU designs
offer averaging and median filters
that can be applied to high-speed
ADC readings, making it possible to
return spot mean measurements.
At times, it is useful to characterise
how a pulse is transmitted through a
device or system. These applications
require that the entire pulse be digi-
tised, including the rising and falling
edges (Figure 3c). This measurement
is possible using the high-speed
ADCs to measure asynchronously to
the source operation.
Pulses are sometimes used to pro-
vide power stresses to the device. In
these applications, it is useful to
record the device state before the
stress is applied. This can be done by
programming a pulse with a non-zero
idle level and triggering the measure-
ments before triggering the pulse
(Figure 3d). The user can specify how
long before the pulse the measure-
ments should occur. Timers are used
to programme the start of the meas-
urement and the beginning and end
of the pulse.
When using pulse testing to stress
a device, the device must also be
characterised after the stress is
applied. This is typically done by
sourcing a pre-defined test voltage or
current after the pulse (Figure 3e).
The test level is chosen so as not to
cause any additional thermal or elec-
trical stress to the device. The meas-
urement can be made by sourcing a
pulse with a non-zero idle level and
using the high-speed ADCs to per-
form the measurement. The results
from the high-speed ADCs indicate
how the device recovers from the
stress. O
The author is Mark Cejer, director of
marketing at Keithley Instruments
Keithley Instruments
www.keithley.co.uk
ElectronicsWeekly.com
test and measurement
Faster measurements using SCPI
Optimising RF/MW power measurement speed can be achieved through an understanding of Standard Commands
for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) used to set the instrument, write Goh Ching Chuan and Karen Chew
ower meters will return a
P measurement upon receiv-
ing a measurement query
command such as “FETC?”,
“READ?” or “MEAS?”. “MEAS?” is
the simplest command because it is
a compound command equivalent to
“ABORT” followed by “CONF” and
“READ?”.
It is the simplest because the power
meter auto-configures itself before
returning the measurement. “READ?”
is also a compound command,
equivalent to “ABORT” followed by
“INIT” and “FETC?”. “FETC?” is not
a compound command.
In most cases, configuration and
initialisation should be done just
once before performing measure-
ments until it is necessary to recon-
figure the power meter. The draw-
back of this is that the user has to
understand the configuration require-
ment and also the test method.
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18 | EW 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011
Assume a production engineer
needs to measure RF power level
around -10dBm with a three-digit
resolution for five times. At this
power level and resolution, the
power meter will automatically
select an average count of 16 with the
“MEAS?” command.
For comparison, we set the average
count to 16 when using the “FETC?”
command. To make sure there is no
systematic error influencing the
result, the program will randomly
alternate between “MEAS?” and
“FETC?” for 10 times. Figure 1
compares the test time taken by the
“MEAS?” and “FETC?” commands.
The “FETC?” command is faster
because initialisation is done only
once, while initialisation is done five
times using the “MEAS?” command
because of the “INIT” command in
“MEAS?”. If five complete settled
measurements are required, the
“MEAS?” command should be used
despite the longer test time.
However, if five settled measure-
ments with moving averaging are
required, the “FETC?” command may
be used for quicker measurements.
Buffered mode cuts overhead
Typically, if 1,000 measurements
are required, we will need to write
the meter 1,000 times and read from
the meter 1,000 times. The buffered
mode will reduce this overhead. This
mode is available under FAST mode
with TRIG:COUNT set higher than 1.
TRIG:COUNT 50 will be the fastest
buffered mode since one query will
return 50 measurements. Figure 2
shows a comparison of buffered
mode and normal query mode.
The drawback of buffered mode is
that none of the measurements returned
are averaged because the FAST mode
disables averaging. If the power level of
interest falls in the most accurate part of
the power sensor dynamic range that
doesn’t need averaging, buffer mode
will be best for acquiring large numbers
of power measurements.
REAL beats ASCII for speed
Power meters can be configured to
return power measurement in two for-
mats: ASCII and REAL. For the same
amount of power measurement data,
a smaller number of bytes are trans-
ferred from power meters to computer
when using the REAL format. To
transfer a measurement from power
meter to computer, REAL format will
need 9 bytes, in which 8 bytes are
data and 1 byte is terminator.
Figure 1: To complete five measurements with 16 averages each, it
takes 5s using MEAS? and 1.2s using FETC?
ASCII format will need 17 bytes,
in which 16 bytes are data and 1 byte
is terminator. Because of this, the
speed difference is significant when
obtaining hundreds or thousands of
measurements.
Continuing from the previous set-
tings where it took about 10s to
acquire 1,000 readings in buffered
mode, we will switch randomly
between ASCII format and REAL for-
mat for 20 times, each time acquiring
1,000 measurements. Figure 3 shows
the speed comparison of using ASCII
format and REAL format.
Watts faster than dBm
Inside power meters, everything is
calculated in linear Volts or Watts
before conversion to other units. To
increase speed, measurements should
be obtained in Watts. The difference
is not noticeable if only one or two
measurements are taken because the
difference is hidden by software and
hardware latencies.
To demonstrate the speed differ-
ence, the previous program will
switch randomly between using dBm
and Watts for 20 times, acquiring
1,000 measurements each time.
Power meters and the sensor
should be zeroed and calibrated prior
to use and also when the environ-
mental temperature changes. Zero
and calibration can take anywhere
from less than 15s to more than 40s
depending on the model of meter and
sensor used. One of the easiest ways
is to use the maximum amount of
waiting time.
Assume a fixed wait period of 40s
ElectronicsWeekly.com
 test and measurement

Figure 2: To complete 1,000 measurements, it takes 45s using Figure 3: To complete 1,000 buffered mode measurements, it takes
non-buffered mode and 10s using buffered mode 10s in ASCII format and 2.5s using REAL format

regardless of the model used. Should
the particular model only need 15s,
25s will be wasted. Another way is
that if the power meter and sensor
require 15s, a 16s wait time can be
set. This may seem like a good solu-
tion, but there is no guarantee that
the zero and calibration procedure
time will not increase or decrease as
the power meter and power sensor
design evolves. Besides, waiting 16s
still means 1s is wasted.
To solve this problem, we can set
the interface to time out in 60s and
use the following SCPI commands:
CAL:ALL
*OPC?
This will limit wait time to 60s. If
zero and calibration time takes only
15s, “*OPC?”, an operation complete
query command, will return “1” im-
mediately after zero and calibration
is completed. Power meters and sen-
sors are designed to meet many cus-
tomer power measurement require-
ments. To achieve the fastest speed
possible, the user has to understand
their test requirement and how to
configure the meters and sensors to
adapt to different test methods.
From experiments of buffered mode
to acquire 1,000 measurements above,
we see that test time is cut from 10s to
2.5s and then to 0.9s by just changing
the format and unit. Besides buffered
mode, power meters support features
to enable asynchronous operation so
that other tasks may be performed
while waiting for power meters to
complete pending operations. O
The authors are Goh Ching Chuan, design
and development engineer, and Karen Chew,
application engineer, at Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies
www.agilent.com

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Mosfet drivers offer peak
output currents of 2A and 3A
Microchip has expanded its fam-
ily of mosfet drivers with the
MCP14E6/7/8 and MCP14E9/10/11
low-side drivers.
The drivers offer peak output cur-
rents of 2A and 3A respectively. They
have an operating voltage range of
4.5V-18V and features enable input
pins to provide a shutdown capabili-
ty for conserving power.
They are offered in eight-pin SOIC
and eight-pin 6x5mm DFN packages.
The MCP14E6/7/8 dual devices
are rated for a peak output current of
2A, while the dual MCP14E9/10/11
drivers are rated for a peak output
current of 3A.
www.microchip.com
High-efficiency switched mode
controller for high-power LEDs
International Rectifier has the
IRS2548D switched mode power
supply control IC which is designed
for use in high-power LED lighting,
including LED street lighting, sta-
dium lighting and theatrical lighting.
The device combines power factor
correction (PFC) and a half-bridge
driver. It offers greater than 88% effi-
ciency for a 40V/1.3A HBLED load.
The intention is to offer a higher ef-
ficiency compared with alternative
flyback converter designs at power
levels above 60W.
The IC achieves PWM dimming
down to less than 2% light output
and offers protection features that in-
clude programmable PFC and half-
bridge over-current protection, latch
immunity and ESD protection.
The IRS2548D also includes varia-
ble frequency oscillator, fixed inter-
nal 1.6us deadtime, internal boot-
strap mosfet, internal 15.6V zener
clamp diode on Vcc, and micropow-
er start-up (250μA).
www.irf.com
20 | EW 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011
LED drivers PRODUCT
FOCUS
put voltages for each LED string,” reduced using a standard AC mains
said the supplier. TRIAC dimmer down to 1% (3mA)
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each with up to ten 100mA LEDs The supply is designed to be
in series, delivering efficiencies compatible with both low-cost,
above 90%. leading-edge dimmers and more
Each channel can be independent- sophisticated trailing-edge dimmers.
ly dimmed with True Color PWM™ It operates over the universal AC
dimming, offering dimming ratios as input range (85Vac-265Vac, 47Hz-
high as 10,000:1. Operating frequen- 63Hz) and can withstand an input
cy is programmable between 200kHz range of 0Vac-300Vac, improving
and 1MHz. field reliability and lifetime during
The LT3597 is available in a line sags and swells.
5x8mm QFN package. Power factor is specified greater
www.linear.com/product/LT3597 than 0.9 and input current total
harmonic distortion (THD) is less
5W offline LED driver features than 10% at 115Vac and less than
flicker-free TRIAC dimming 15% at 230Vac.
Power Integrations is offering a The board fits inside a pear-
reference design for a 5W offline shaped A19 LED replacement lamp
LED driver that includes flicker-free with an E26/27 base. RDK-251 con-
TRIAC dimming and single-stage tains full power supply specifica-
power factor correction (PFC). Based tions, schematic, bill of materials,
on the firm’s LNK457DG LED driver, transformer documentation, printed
the reference design provides a single circuitboard layout, and perform-
LED driver for handhelds boasts constant-current output of 350mA at ance data.
fault protection and diagnostics a nominal LED string voltage of 15V. www.powerint.com/rdk
ON Semiconductor has introduced a The output current can be
single-channel LED driver tuned for
low-power applications such as port-
able handheld medical equipment.
The CAT3661, which uses a
patented architecture and integrates
fault protection and fault diagnostics,
is able to drive a single LED backlight
with a current of up to 5mA. Soft-
start current limiting and short-
circuit protection make the device
ideal for use in equipment powered
by coin cell batteries.
Typical applications include low-
power backlighting for LCDs and
backlighting for a wide range of port-
able handheld devices, including
medical equipment.
Packaged in a 16-lead TQFN pack-
age measuring 3x3x0.8mm, the chip’s
quad-mode charge pump supports a
range of input voltages from 2V-5.5V
and helps achieve peak efficiency
levels of up to 92%.
A typical quiescent current of
just 150μA across all operating
modes at full load and a zero current
shutdown help reduce power
consumption.
Constant current 16-channel LED
www.onsemi.com drivers offer 25MHz data transfer
DC-DC converter delivers three-
channel constant current for LEDs
Linear Technology has introduced a
60V, 1MHz, step-down DC/DC con-
verter designed to operate as a three-
channel, constant current LED driver.
Each channel of the LT3597
contains a constant current sink LED
driver with a dedicated adaptive-
output buck converter.
“This design offers maximum effi-
ciency for applications such as RGB
displays, which require different out-
ElectronicsWeekly.com
 products 





 



 

Tektronix scopes expand support for MIPI testing




 

www.tektron
nix.com

Regulated bus converter delivers south pole operated) and dual output
up to 210W output power device the AH1891 provides the de-

Murata Power Solutions has a regu- sign flexibility to suit a variety of low
lated bus converter that delivers up power circuit architectures,” said the
 
to 210W output power, with a Vin company.
range of 36-75V. When a magnetic flux density is
At 225kHz fixed-frequency opera- detected and exceeds the IC’s operat-
tion, efficiency is specified at 92.5% ing point, output 1 is pulled low
at full load, with Vout regulation while output 2 is inverted high, ena-
(±1.5%) in a quarter brick open frame bling different logic systems to be ac-
package. commodated.
The fully isolated (2250Vdc) RBC- With operating and release points
12/17-D48 is able to accept a range optimized and stable over the tem-
36Vdc to 75Vdc (48V nominal) input. perature range -40ºC to 85ºC, the
This is then converted to a AH1891 is immune to the possibility
12Vdc/17A output. of early or late switching effects. 

Overall dimensions are http://www.diodes.com 

56.39x36.83x10.67mm.
www.murata-ps.com
LatticeECP3 Versa development
kit for just $99 in limited quantity
Lattice Semiconductor has intro-
duced the LatticeECP3 Versa devel-
opment kit at a promotional price of
only $99.
Lattice is also offering a limited
quantity promotion on five IP suites,
which are described as building
blocks for applications such as high-
speed data transfer, Ethernet net-
license for Lattice Diamond design
software for use with the Versa Kit.
The demonstration systems, refer-
ence designs and Lattice Diamond
software are available for free down-
load.
www.latticesemi.com/ecp3versa
Smallest output omnipolar Hall
effect switch IC for mobiles
Diodes claims to have the smallest
dual output omnipolar Hall effect
switch IC.
Designed for open/close detection
Motor control evaluation kit for
brushless DC motors
Texas Instruments has introduced a
complete motor control evaluation
kit for spinning brushless DC (BLDC)
and permanent magnet synchronous
(PMSM) motors.
Based on sensorless field-oriented
control and trapezoidal commuta-
tion, the kit is aimed at the develop-
ment of sub-50V and 6.5A brushless
motors for driving medical pumps,
gates, lifts and small pumps
working, high speed memory inter- in mobile phones and other battery- Industrial automation and robotics   
faces, digital signal processing and powered products, the AH1891 oper- are other likely applications. 

video pixel processing.
The five IP Suites normally retail
for an annual subscription fee of $995
ates over the supply voltage range The DRV8312-C2-KIT evaluation
1.8V to 3.3V. There is also a sleep kit includes the DRV8312 motor driv-
function, assuring an average current er, a 32-bit C2000 Piccolo microcon-

 
 


each. A limited number of IP Suites
   
licenses are available for a promo-
tional first year subscription of only
$99 each.
consumption of only 7μA.
Provided in an 0.8mm x 0.8mm
CSP package, the IC is some 13 times
smaller than common 3-leaded
troller and controlCARD module.
Software support includes a graph-
ical user interface, full development




source code, Code Composer Studio 
 
The Versa package includes the
LatticeECP3 Versa Evaluation Board,
seven demonstration systems, 16 free
reference designs and an evaluation
ElectronicsWeekly.com
TSOT packaged alternatives and is
significantly smaller than other DFN
and SOT553 packaged parts.
“Being an omnipolar (north and

(CCStudio) integrated development
environment (IDE) and a three-phase
BLDC motor.
www.ti.com/motorcontrol-pr
27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011 EW | 21
 sponsored by

gadget master
MOST POPULAR Welcome to the monthly page featuring the ElectronicsWeekly.com Gadget Master blog,
This month’s most read posts sponsored by Digi-Key. As well covering the most popular posts and highlighting current
competitions, we look at some classic Gadget Master posts from the past.
1 Gadget of the Week –
Acer Aspire Z5761
touchscreen PC
www.electronicsweekly.com/gadget-master

Time to fish some MOST RECENT POSTS

likely contenders
from the swelling > LockCracker robot always finds the combination
ocean of gadget What combination locks can resist the LockCracker robot? A group of Gadget Masters have ingeniously
and technology constructed this device as part of a student project at Olin College of Engineering – I take my hat off to them!
blogs. As always, let’s get a few
eye-catching-but-rather-frivolous > Skeletonics builds running exoskeleton
non-contenders out of the way… A very impressive exoskeleton project from a team of Japanese students. They are called Skeletonics and
their prototype is still evolving.

2 Video: The tie tying

machine
It would be a
> Building a binary bench
A strange sort of beauty, or just downright ugly? It’s the binary low table from BRC Designs, making the most
brave man who of recycling old computer components. A table version, almost, of the chip art we featured before.
would trust this
machine to tie > Video: How a differential gear works
his tie in the For those Gadget Masters with a mechanical bent, here is an old video from the 1930s that may be of
morning, but credit to its creator, interest, “Around The Corner”, courtesy of the Chevrolet Motor Division.
Seth Goldstein. He describes it as “a
kinetic sculpture that continually ties > Gameduino spritely takes centre stage
and unties a necktie”. We’ve often sung the praises of the Arduino – see the roundup “The many faces of Arduino”, for example –
but this has never involved the subject of gaming.

3 Homemade brushless
motor reed switch motor
Take a look at this
Get the latest Gadget Master posts via RSS feed: electronicsweekly.com/rss

one, recommends
our Technology
Editor. It’s a motor
with a small alarm
contact (reed switch). “The switch
triggers a transistor which in turn
fires the coil. The switch is sensing
the position of the drum and the four
magnets. The motor runs on 6 Volts.”
COMPETITION
> Win a Samsung Blu-Ray player
Time is running out to win a Samsung BD-C5500 Blu-Ray Player WiFi Ready, courtesy of
Digi-Key, which sponsors the Gadget Master blog. Features of the Samsung BD-C5500
include full 1080P high-definition video, Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio, internet
content on your TV such as the BBC iPlayer, support for wireless connectivity, and BD live
(Profile 2.0) and Bonusview. It would set you back £57 on Amazon (RRP £84.99).
As always, we’ll keep the format familiar and straightforward: correctly answer one question for a chance of winning the

4 Keep your property where

you can see it
A safe home is
toolkit. Please note that the competition closes at end of play on Friday 29 April, so you only have a couple of days to enter!
electronicsweekly.com/gadget-master-compo

a happy one,
but many CLASSIC PROJECTS
off-the-shelf
surveillance > GM Classic: Do you want to build your own laser harp?
cameras are Stephen Hobley has invented one and has shared his workings online. It certainly looks impressive. Hobley says the harp is
too expensive driven by an Arduino (Boarduino variation) and connected to the impOSCar VSTi software synthesiser, with a TAOS sensor
or simply array sitting on the floor in its own stand. The array above the harp is just made up of front surface mirrors for “added p’zazz”.
impractical for home use. That’s why The harp does respond to hand distance from the sensor, but that can sometimes go awry, he writes, so he switched it off
designer Alberto Ricci Bitti created for the demo version. Hobley says the Arduino board supported all the key elements required for the harp: SPI interface, to
an automated and inexpensive connect to a DAC chip; timer interrupts, to control the signal pattern we must output; hardware interrupt pins, to react to
surveillance camera that uses a flash signals coming back in from a sensor; serial output, to transmit the MIDI messages to the synthesiser; easy to program
card as recording media. using the WIRING/C++ language; good community support; and inexpensive! You can read the datasheet and see example
code, but watch the video first! Please note he does charge $19 to download the full Laser Harp plans and schematics.

5 Build your own LED cube

The project
is fully docu-
electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/2009/03/build-your-own-laser-harp.html

mented in terms E-NEWSLETTERS

of parts and the
build process,
and Peter
provides a number of photos to help
navigate construction. There is also a
ready to program HEX file with some
demo cube animations and the
source code.
See all these and more at:
electronicsweekly.com/gadget-master
> Daily newsletter
Straight to your inbox, no fuss, early afternoon. Short and sweet, the daily e-mail will contain the latest news on the
site, the latest product releases, and the most popular content that your peers are reading, keeping you up to date
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news – daily highlights of the latest news from ElectronicsWeekly.com”.
> Circuits newsletter
Featuring the Gadget Master blog and other circuit-related content, the Circuits e-newsletter is chock full of ideas for
design engineers who love circuits and are looking for inspiration for their own projects.
electronicsweekly.com/signup

22 | EW 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2011 ElectronicsWeekly.com

2200
00 M
MHz
H – 4455 G
GHz
H M
Models
d l EEdition
diti 004-2011
4 2011

Oscilloscope Overview
New
WaveSurfer MXs-B Series
200 MHz – 1 GHz Oscilloscopes

New
WavePro 7 Zi-A Series
1.5 GHz – 6 GHz Oscilloscopes

New
LabMaster 9 Zi-A Series
20 Channel Oscilloscopes
with up to 45 GHz

New WaveRunner 6 Zi Series

400 MHz – 4 GHz Oscilloscopes
Up to 40 GS/s – Up to 128 Mpts – Rotating 12.1" Display
 Oscilloscope Selection Guide
NEW 400 MHz – 4 GHz Bandwidth 3 40 GS/s max. Sample Rate 3 128 Mpts max. Memory 3

WaveRunner® 6 Zi
Unbelievable Performance
Series The WaveRunner 6 Zi oscilloscope is the most versatile scope in the 400 MHz to 4 GHz class. The performance offered
is unmatched, offering deep memory, 40 GS/s sample rate, low noise and fast operation to help get the job done quickly
and accurately. The toolset provides every necessity for an engineer to validate a design, debug errors at board bring up,
and offer powerful analysis to characterize an embedded system. The front panel and rotating/tilting display provide the
optimum viewing and waveform display to provide the most detail. The WaveRunner 6 Zi is the Ultimate Debug Machine.

A New Way to Navigate

The WavePilot control area provides convenient control of Cursors, Decode,
WaveScan™, History, LabNotebook™, and Spectrum by their respective function
buttons on the front panel. The SuperKnob is a joystick-like knob in the center of
the WavePilot control area used to easily navigate through tables, zoom and position
waveforms, and quickly document and annotate your setups.

Rotating Display
The 12.1" high resolution WXGA wide screen is designed to provide the best view of any signal type on the display.
The widescreen is ideal for a variety of signals where long records are required and zooming or scrolling results in a
large block of data. Rotate the screen 90 degrees to optimize the display for viewing digital signals, jitter tracks, eye
diagrams, and frequency plots. The screen image will adjust automatically when rotated. Tilt the display up or down in
either orientation to minimize reflections or glare.

May 2011: Superior Validation, Debug, Analysis

12-bit Oscilloscopes
scopes with The WaveRunner 6 Zi defines superiority in a test instrument with a powerful feature set including a wide range of
400 MHz and 60000 MHz, application packages, advanced triggering to isolate events, a user interface developed for quick and easy navigation,
2 GS/s, 256 Mptss a wide range of probing options, lightning-fast performance and silent fans.

Excellent Signal Fidelity

The WaveRunner 6 Zi oscilloscope family features a pristine signal path that
/Graph

offers unmatched signal fidelity with low noise. This performance is

c

augmented by a huge offset and timebase delay adjustment to allow

Y
ProtoSyn
Measure

QuailPH
Decode
Trigger

easy signal and amplifier performance assessment

and zooming on vertical and horizontal signal
characteristics.
I 2C • • •
SPI • • •
Embedded

Q Check http://www.lecroy.com/Oscilloscope
I 2S • • • for more information
UART,
• • •
RS-232
CAN • • •
Automotive

FROM
OM
LIN • • •
FlexRay • • • £11,200
20 0
Military &
Avionics

ARINC 429 • •
MIL-STD-1553 • • •
DigRF 3G • •
Handset Cellular

MIPI D-PHY
Mobile

• •
/CSI-2/DSI
WaveRunner WaveRunner WaveRunner WaveRunner WaveRunner WaveRunner
DigRF v4 • •
604 Zi 606 Zi 610 Zi 620 Zi 625 Zi 640 Zi
8b/10b • • Channel 4 4 4 4 4 4
Fibre Channel • • Bandwidth 400 MHz 600 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 2,5 GHz 4 GHz
SATA (1.5 & 3 Gb/s) • • • • Sample Rate 10 GS/s / 10 GS/s / 10 GS/s / 20 GS/s / 20 GS/s / 20 GS/s /
Storage / Peripherals

per Ch/max. 20 GS/s 20 GS/s 20 GS/s 40 GS/s 40 GS/s 40 GS/s

Interconnects

SAS (1.5 & 3 Gb/s) • •

PCIe (Gen1) • • • • Acquisition and 32 Mpts – 32 Mpts – 32 Mpts – 32 Mpts – 32 Mpts – 32 Mpts –
Analysis Memory 128 Mpts 128 Mpts 128 Mpts 128 Mpts 128 Mpts 128 Mpts
USB 2.0 • • • •
Touchscreen Display 12.1" WXGA 12.1" WXGA 12.1" WXGA 12.1" WXGA 12.1" WXGA 12.1" WXGA
LPDDR2 •
Operating System 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit
DDR2 • Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7®
Ethernet • Mixed Signal Options 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel
NEW 200 MHz – 1 GHz Bandwidth 3 10 GS/s Sample Rate 3 25 Mpts Memory 3

WaveSurfer®
The WaveSurfer was designed with speed and responsiveness in mind, from capturing waveforms and making measure-
MXs-B Series ments to using FFTs and decoding serial data. With up to 10 GS/s sample rate and 25 Mpts/Ch memory and a very fast
processing speed it can handle long memory captures faster than any of the competition. The new Sequence mode
enables capturing of very fast pulses in rapid succession with trigger rates of up to 1.25 million waveforms per second.
The touch screen interface is the ultimate in ease-of use. With standard Advanced Math and Trigger packages and features
like WaveStream fast viewing mode, WaveScan Search and Find and LabNotebook Reporting, you can be confident that
every problem can quickly be detected and analyzed. Beyond these great features, the WaveSurfer offers a wide range of
serial data tools for I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, LIN, FlexRay, USB, ARINC 429, MIL-1553, MIPI, DigRF3G, and Digital Audio as well
as industry leading 18/36 digital channel mixed signal capabilities to quickly troubleshoot embedded system designs.

Most Complete Serial Trigger and Decode Solution in its Class

Quickly and easily isolate specific serial data events on your embedded controller for better understanding and faster
debug with trigger conditions in binary or hexadecimal formats. The conditional data trigger allows for triggering on a
FROM
OM
range of values. Advanced software algorithms deconstruct the waveform into binary, hex, or ASCII protocol information,
£ 6,435
435 then overlay the decoded data on the waveform. Various sections of the protocol are color-coded to make it easy to
understand. The decode operation is fast — even with long acquisitions.

WaveSurfer WaveSurfer WaveSurfer WaveSurfer WaveSurfer WaveSurfer

24MXs-B 42MXs-B 44MXs-B 62MXs-B 64MXs-B 104MXs-B
Channel 4 2 4 2 4 4
Bandwidth 200 MHz 400 MHz 400 MHz 600 MHz 600 MHz 1 GHz
Sample Rate 2.5 GS/s 5 GS/s 5 GS/s 5 GS/s / 10 GS/s 5 GS/s / 10 GS/s 5 GS/s / 10 GS/s
per Ch/max.
Memory 25 Mpts/Ch 25 Mpts/Ch 25 Mpts/Ch 25 Mpts/Ch 25 Mpts/Ch 25 Mpts/Ch
Display 10.4" Touchscreen 10.4" Touchscreen 10.4" Touchscreen 10.4" Touchscreen 10.4" Touchscreen 10.4" Touchscreen
Serial Bus Options I2C, I2S/AudioBus, SPI, LIN, CAN, FlexRay, UART/RS-232, MIL-STD-1553, USB, MIPI, DigRF3G Trigger & Decode Options
Mixed Signal Options MS-250 and MS-500 18 / 36 Digital Channel Options

NEW 1.5 GHz – 6 GHz Bandwidth 3 40 GS/s max. Sample Rate 3 256 Mpts max. Memory 3

WavePro®/
Combining signal fidelity with an architecture that maximizes speed in every performance aspect, the new WavePro 7
SDA 7 Zi-A Series Zi-A Series presents a totally new oscilloscope experience from 1.5 to 6 GHz bandwidths. Experience 50 1 and 1 M1
inputs for every channel and four inputs into high-speed front end amplifiers and analog to digital converters.
The X-Stream™ II architecture maximizes speed in all aspects —10–100 times faster analysis processing on maximum
record lengths and instantaneous instrument responsiveness. The WavePro 7 Zi-A Series provides superior performance
for the debugging, validation, compliance testing, and analysis of electronic designs..

Standard Customization & Jitter Analysis Packages

Only LeCroy completely integrates third party programs into the scope’s processing stream by allowing you to create
and deploy a new measurement or math algorithm directly into the oscilloscope environment and display the result
on the oscilloscope in real-time! Use C/C++, MATLAB, Excel, Jscript (JAVA), and Visual Basic to create your own
customized math functions, measurement parameters, or other control algorithms.
The Jitter Package includes a complete set of time domain measurements for Clock, Clock-to-data, and Data Stream
Analysis. Parameter measurements offers 3 Jitter views: Jitter Histogram, Jitter Trend, JitterTrack, and a Persistence
FROM
OM
function.
£ 21,190
190
WavePro WavePro/ WavePro/ WavePro/ WavePro/
715 Zi-A SDA 725 Zi-A SDA 735 Zi-A SDA 740 Zi-A SDA 760 Zi-A
Channel 4 4 4 4 4
Bandwidth 1.5 GHz 2.5 GHz 3.5 GHz 4 GHz 6 GHz
Sample Rate 10 GS/s / 20 GS/s 20 GS/s / 40 GS/s 20 GS/s / 40 GS/s 20 GS/s / 40 GS/s 20 GS/s / 40 GS/s
per Ch/max.
Analysis Memory 256 Mpts 256 Mpts 256 Mpts 256 Mpts 256 Mpts
Off-line Data transfer 325 MB/s 325 MB/s 325 MB/s 325 MB/s 325 MB/s
Input Coupling 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1
Touchscreen Display 15.3" WXGA 15.3" WXGA 15.3" WXGA 15.3" WXGA 15.3" WXGA
Operating System 64-bit Windows 7® 64-bit Windows 7® 64-bit Windows 7® 64-bit Windows 7® 64-bit Windows 7®
Mixed Signal Options 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel 18/36 Channel
Oscilloscope Selection Guide
WaveMaster®/ 4 GHz – 45 GHz Bandwidth 3 120 GS/s max. Sample Rate 3 768 Mpts max. Memory 3

SDA 8 Zi-A Series Product Highlights:

Q Industry leading performance – 45 GHz bandwidth,120 GS/s sample rate, 768 Mpts of analysis memory
Q Exceptional 20 GHz (4 input channels) and 30 GHz (2 input channels) performance
Q Widest bandwidth upgrade range (4 – 45 GHz) provides best investment leverage
Q Lowest Jitter Noise Floor (125 fs rms ) and highly stable over long acquisitions
Q 10–100 times faster analysis and better responsiveness than other oscilloscopes
Q Superior serial data analysis with SDA II software—more capability to decompose and analyze jitter
Q Check http://www.lecroy.com/Oscilloscope for more information
WaveMaster 8 Zi-A combines the highest bandwidth (45 GHz) and sample rate (120 GS/s) with superior performance
at 20 GHz on all four input channels. A complete bandwidth upgradability throughout the entire product range makes it
easy and affordable to stay current with emerging high-speed technologies and standards. The X-Stream™ II architec-
ture maximizes speed in all aspects —10–100 times faster analysis processing on maximum record lengths, instan-
taneous responsiveness, and 20 times faster off-line data transfer. Combined with LeCroy’s flexible and deep analysis
toolbox, the WaveMaster 8 Zi-A Series provides superior performance for the debugging, validation, compliance testing,
and analysis of electronic designs.
SDA 8 Zi provides the fastest and most complete understanding of why serial data fails a compliance test. Whether
debugging eye pattern or other compliance test failures, the SDA 8 Zi-A Series rapidly isolates the source of the
problem in your design. Advanced jitter decomposition methodologies and tools provide more information about root
cause. Tj Analysis, RjBUj Analysis and DDj Analysis is made simple with the deepest toolset for the highest level of
insight into your serial data signals. The combination of the SDA 8 Zi-A Serial Data Analyzer, the PeRT3 and the SPARQ
provides the most comprehensive solution for serial data compliance testing. These three pieces of equipment enable
a full suite of physical layer compliance testing and debugging ability that will guarantee the best signal integrity for
your serial data signals.

WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/ WaveMaster/

SDA 804 Zi-A SDA 806 Zi-A SDA 808 Zi-A SDA 813 Zi-A SDA 816 Zi-A SDA 820 Zi-A SDA 825 Zi-A SDA 830 Zi-A SDA 845 Zi-A
Channel 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Bandwidth 4 GHz 6 GHz 8 GHz 13 GHz 16 GHz 20 GHz 25 GHz 30 GHz 45 GHz
Sample Rate 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s / 40 GS/s /
per Ch/max. 80 GS/s 80 GS/s 80 GS/s 80 GS/s 80 GS/s 80 GS/s 80 GS/s 80 GS/s 120 GS/s
Memory std. 20 Mpts 20 Mpts 20 Mpts 20 Mpts 20 Mpts 20 Mpts 20 Mpts 20 Mpts 20 Mpts
Max. Acquisition and 512 Mpts 512 Mpts 512 Mpts 512 Mpts 512 Mpts 512 Mpts 512 Mpts 512 Mpts 768 Mpts
Analysis Memory
Rise time* 71 ps 47 ps 37 ps 24.5 ps 21.5 ps 16.5 ps 13 ps 11.5 ps 8 ps
Jitter Noise Floor^ 550 fsrms 425 fsrms 375 fsrms 265 fsrms 240 fsrms 190 fsrms 165 fsrms 140 fsrms 125 fsrms
Input Coupling 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1 50 1 and 1 M1
Touchscreen Display 15.3" 15.3" 15.3" 15.3" 15.3" 15.3" 15.3" 15.3" 15.3"
Operating System 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit 64-bit
Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7® Windows 7®
* typ., 20 – 80 %, flatness 50 1; ^ for acq. length ) 10μs, TIE typ.

NEW Up tp 20 Channels 3 4 GHz – 45 GHz Bandwidth 3 120 GS/s max. Sample Rate 3 768 Mpts max. Memory 3

LabMaster 9 Zi-A Highest Performance – No Compromises

The LabMaster 9 Zi-A represents the pinnacle for bandwidth (45 GHz), sample rate (120 GS/s), channels (up to 5 ch.
at 45 GHz, 10 ch. at 30 GHz, or 20 ch. at 20 GHz) and analysis memory (up to 768 Mpts/Ch). For the most demanding
research and development applications, such as next-generation optical transmission development, LabMaster 9 Zi-A
is the only solution available.

Synchronized Clocking for Highest Time base Accuracy

The LabMaster utilizes a single, distributed 10 GHz clock for all channels to ensure that timing accuracy amongst all
channels is identical to that provided within a single, standard oscilloscope package.

Server-class Multi-core Processor for Fast Acquisition and Analysis

The LabMaster 9 Zi-A utilizes a server-class multi-core processor that is 16 times more powerful than what is normally
PLC_AA_04-2011_ENG_WDW

provided for in a single LeCroy high bandwidth oscilloscope. Combined with LeCroy’s X-Stream II technology that is
optimized for multi-core processing, the result is the most impressive acquisition and analysis capability possible.

© 2011 by LeCroy Corporation. All rights reserved. Specifications, prices, availability, and delivery subject to change without notice.
www.lecroy.com/europe Product or brand names are trademarks or requested trademarks of their respective holders.