Highlights

Responding to requests from customers, ZTEC Instruments has improved the ZWave control software and drivers for its ZT530 C-class of function/arbitrary waveform generators. The company says its new ZWave soft front-panel (SFP) application is easier to use and that it also looks and operates like a traditional bench signal generator.

Boyd Shaw, ZTEC Instruments’ director of marketing, explained, “Over the years, we received a lot of feedback on our original ZWave function generator software. Customers were telling us that the hardware was great, but that the accompanying software was not as easy to use as they would like. Customers wanted ZWave to look and operate like a benchtop function generator.”

The new ZWave controls any ZT530 instrument. The drivers that are part of the ZWave installer also provide class-level support, which enables users to change instrument platforms without needing to rewrite any software. For example, code written for a ZT530 PCI instrument can be used for a ZT530 PXI instrument.

The new drivers also provide hooks into C, LabView, LabWindows/CVI, COM, and Visual Studio. In addition, the new ZWave runs on Windows Vista and Linux 2.6.x; the original ZWave ran only on Windows 2000 and XP. The new ZWave and instrument drivers are available for free. www.ztecinstruments.com/download-software.

The PXI Systems Alliance (PXISA) reports that Keithley Instruments has increased its membership status to the Executive Member level. Prior to the upgrade, Keithley had been an Associate Member. The higher level of membership gives Keithley a voice in the development and approval of the PXISA’s technical specifications. www.pxisa.org; www.keithley.com.

Metrikos, in conjunction with Huntron, demonstrated at Autotestcon its patent-pending near-field signature-analysis technology, which supports close proximity sensing of electromagnetic fields emanating from active or passive circuitry.

The technology is based on the observation that identical printed-circuit boards will emanate nearly identical fields as a function of an RF sensing probe’s position relative to each board. The Metrikos approach makes use of robotic RF probe positioning to determine a board’s near-field signature as a function of x, y, and z coordinates.

Metrikos calls each probe position a Virtual Test Point, whose value can be stored for subsequent recall and comparison. Anomalies—such as an open trace, short, or bad component—alter Virtual Test Point values, and a comparison of a board under test’s signature with that of a known good board isolates faults—even on conformally coated boards.

A near-field test system includes PXI instrumentation and a Huntron Access Prober platform, which positions a Metrikos NFSA sensor at programmable x, y, and z locations over a circuit under test. Huntron distributes the systems. www.huntron.com.