Evaluation Engineering

Electrical safety testing has been around for almost a century, and safety agencies have been testing and certifying products for almost as long. Electrical and electronic products have changed dramatically...

It’s a rather quiet secret that the LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation (LXI) standard has been growing by leaps and bounds. The first revision of the standard is barely four years old and yet more...

Designing a load board or circuit board for IC testing sounds like a routine task that involves a few basic requirements and some common-sense approaches. But it’s not always that simple. With new...

Taken literally, embedded test is just that: test capabilities that exist wholly embedded within a system. Power-on self-test is an example as is a built-in performance-monitoring feature programmed...

It’s obvious that over-the-air (OTA) radio transmissions go through the air and, similarly, fiber-optic communications use optical fibers. What may not be immediately apparent are the implications...

For decades, if you wanted to make a millimeter wave spectrum analyzer measurement, you were forced to use large, heavy bench test equipment because there were no other options available. To make field...

Although test-like-you-fly directly relates to aerospace projects, the underlying intention is to mitigate risk by running the most appropriate tests. In that sense, the phrase applies more broadly. Skipping...

One of the most difficult aspects of selecting an accelerometer for a particular application is interpreting the accelerometer’s specifications. Often you understand your test requirements well but run...

Has 3-D X-ray PCB assembly inspection finally become a mainstream, inline production tool? The answer ranges from "it has been for some time" to "almost" and clearly depends on whom you ask.

Thermal management becomes more critical as higher electronics performance is designed into smaller packages. As a result, heat removal mechanisms need to become more efficient to prevent...

EMC is fundamentally about peaceful coexistence: An electrical device must function correctly in the presence of interfering signals and not unduly disturb the environment with its own emissions. Specific...

Systems Engineering is the theme of the 2010 IEEE EMC Society’s International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility (ISEMC) July 25-30 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The five-day program at the Greater...

New developments in thermal-imaging equalization software can provide a real-time, accurate picture of how operating temperature affects your electronic components and circuits. Infrared (IR) thermography...

As manager, you should know and understand all phases of a project under your direction. But don't kid yourself. With the many projects you supervise, this goal is tough--sometimes impossible--to achieve....