Seven Products Win Honors
From EE Readers
 

During the past year, many outstanding products were introduced to the test and measurement market by a number of equipment manufacturers. To determine which ones were the best of the best, we asked you, our readers, to choose by voting in our online poll. We thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedules to vote for the best products from among the many published in EE during 2004. These are the products that emerged victorious in our 11^th annual competition.

The selection process began by compiling a group of products representing ATE, Communications Test, Data Acquisition, EMC, Environmental Test, Instrumentation, and Software. These determinations were based on the number of responses that each product received during the year through EE’s RSLeads program.

Our voting process was simple. EE readers selected at random were e-mailed an invitation to vote including a URL that linked to the ballot plus accompanying information on the selected products. The ballot also was available to visitors on the homepage of our website. The voting was conducted for approximately 10 days, and here are the results.

ATE
CheckSum wins the ATE award for the Analyst ems In-Circuit Test System and the Analyst ils Integrated Test and Handling System that provide process testing of analog and digital through-hole and SMT single boards or panels. The rack/cabinet ems has quick-change fixturing; the ils is SMEMA compatible. Both systems have a top and bottom probing fixture system and 2,000 test-point capability, perform bed-of-nails testing, and test the UUT without power applied.

Communications Test
The Communications Test award goes to Ameritec for the Model 404, a 3½-lb, 1.544-Mb/s T1/datacom tester as well as an analog transmission impairment tester for two- or four-wire circuits. Two TX/RX ports support bidirectional drop and insert testing, and the line can be monitored for BERT patterns, ABCD bit status, and SLC alarms. Features include pattern generation and detection and G.821 BER reporting for V.35, V.36, RS-232, and EIA530 interface testing. The unit operates up to six hours on an internal, rechargeable NiMH battery.

Data Acquisition
The victor in the Data Acquisition category is DATAQ Instruments with the DI-158 Series Data Acquisition Modules. The DI-158-U, DI-158-UP, and DI-158-EP modules feature sampling rates of 14,000 S/s with an Ethernet interface or 28,800 S/s with USB. The units also have four differential analog input channels with 12-b resolution, a built-in channel gain scan list, two digital-to-analog outputs with ±10-V range, 4 bits of general-purpose digital I/O, and analog outputs for closed-loop applications.

EMC
EMC Test and Design Consulting captures the EMC award for the Smart Fieldmeter™. It measures electromagnetic fields from 0.2 V/m to 600 V/m over the frequency range of 0.2 MHz to 3 GHz at a linearity of 1.5 dB. An isotropic probe provides omnidirectional operation, and the instrument can display field measurements as average, peak, or pulse. A remote output accommodates external data analysis. Included with the Smart Fieldmeter is a battery, carrying case, detachable probe with cable, remote monitor cable, tripod, and probe clip.

Environmental Test
The award for Environmental Test goes to Thermotron Industries for the S-3800 Series of Environmental Test Chambers. The series features the 3800 Programmer Controller with an interactive touch-sensitive keypad and a four-line display with 20 characters per line, a built-in Ethernet connection, and a web server for remote access. The chambers have a
-68°C to +180°C temperature range and a 10% to 98% humidity range. They come in sizes ranging from 4 to 32 ft³, and compact hermetically sealed compressors provide thermal cycling performance while consuming less power.

Instrumentation
Winning the Instrumentation award is Tektronix with RSA2200A Series and RSA3300A Series Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers. The four models provide time-correlated display of the time, frequency, and modulation domains. Signal bandwidth is 10 MHz to 3 GHz on the 2203A and 10 MHz to 8 GHz on the 2208A. Corresponding 3300A Series models provide DC to 3-GHz and DC to
8-GHz bandwidths. Real-time capture bandwidth for the 2200A Series is
10 MHz and 15 MHz for the 3300A Series. The 2200A Series has 2-MB memory depth while standard memory on the 3300A Series is 64 MB with a 256-MB option.

Software
For the second consecutive year, National Instruments sweeps the Software category. This year, the win goes to LabVIEW 7.1, which features five new Express VIs to generate and modify analog and digital stimulus signals for NI digitizers, signal generators, and high-speed digital I/O platforms. It directly integrates with NI Analog Editor and Digital Waveform Editor software, provides high-speed analog and digital signals, and interfaces with more than 450 analysis, signal-processing, and mathematical functions for creating virtual instruments on PCs.

Published by EE-Evaluation Engineering
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