Avoiding test system downtime with CableSense technology on the PXI platform

摘要

When intermittent failures start to increase, or test data suddenly becomes noisier than expected, or offset by an odd amount, the main question on an engineer's mind is typically the same. What changed? Is the code, instrument, DUT or physical setup to blame? Too often, the issue comes down to one faulty electrical connection, after taking a prohibitively long time to diagnose. The key to mitigating risk here is to verify a system's physical setup at the start of a test, to detect common ATE connection issues early, while remaining minimally disruptive to the test itself. To help do this, Nl has introduced patent-pending CableSense technology to some of its PXI oscilloscope models. Using principles similar to a traditional time-domain reflectometer (TDR) on a real-time oscilloscope within your test system, you can detect changes from a known, golden setup, without having to alter the connections themselves.