The roll-out of 5G infrastructure represents a huge engineering effort, far greater than that of previous mobile communication generations. Additional frequency bands are being opened up to accommodate 5G new radio (NR) technology, including mmWave frequencies (+30GHz), with multi-user MIMO and ultra-low latency operation also setting considerable challenges from a test perspective. These challenges will have an impact on both field testing and the compliance testing of networking hardware as it comes off production lines.
Automatic test equipment (ATE) is employed in manufacturing facilities, in order to maximize throughput -eliminating the need for manual intervention, which generally takes more time. As well as optical inspection, comprehensive functional testing will be conducted and this calls for the conversion and conditioning of electrical signals.
Through machine condition monitoring (MCM), the ongoing operational effectiveness of factory production and industrial processing apparatus can be constantly monitored - making it an essential part of the Industry 4.0 era. Leveraging data acquired by arrays of distributed sensors, analysis can be done across the entire operation - thereby enabling benefits like predictive maintenance and procedural optimization to be derived, as well as the identification of potential operational problems before they are exacerbated. MCM is helping companies to increase their productivity levels, as well as reducing operational costs and ensuring worker safety.
In time-of-flight mass-spectrometry, it is possible to identify different ionized particles. This is done by the application of an electric field to accelerate their movement, then measuring the time they take to reach a detector. Such activities create a lot of signal data across a wide dynamic range. This data has to pass through a digitization stage, before it can be scrutinized.
For all of the scenarios detailed here, state-of-the-art signal conditioning components are going to be required - and this is where Teledyne e2v has a great deal of relevant expertise.