Tektronix Makes Triple Announcement to Set New Benchmark

The provider of test and measurement solutions, Tektronix Inc., is constantly working to establish new benchmarks for the industry. Tektronix Inc. has announced a new triple product offering to go along with it.

The most recent announcements include the TAP1500L cable, the EA BTS 10300, and TekHSI, a high-speed interface offered as a new software feature on the company’s MSO 4B, 5 Series, and 6 Series devices.

The company has improved its battery test system, which continues where we left off in our recent story about its battery testers as a step toward a cleaner future. It is designed to meet the rapidly evolving demands for higher power battery technologies in the electric vehicle (EV) industry and elsewhere.

According to Tektronix, the EA BTS 10300 delivers 300 kW in a single 42U-high rack while occupying only 6.5 square feet of production floor space. With a 2,000 VDC capacity for high-voltage EV battery tests, the system can supply and sink up to 2,400 A per rack, for a total capacity of up to 30,720A. Its bidirectional power supply with SiC-based switching lowers electrical costs by returning power back to the grid and reducing HVAC expenditures due to reduced heat generation. Scalability is also possible by deploying parallel racks, which opens a colossal 3.84 MW of testing capabilities.

TekHSI, a high-speed interface, was introduced as a new firmware feature for the company’s MSO 4B, 5 Series, and 6 Series models. According to Tektronix, the solutions require code optimization to achieve high data transfer speeds, with data being transferred from instrument to computer via standard programmable instrument (SCPI) instructions such as curve and curvestream.

This makes it difficult for test and measurement professionals to utilize the bandwidth of the physical link that their instruments come with (usually 1 Gbps Ethernet). The abstractions presented in TekHSI give an alternative that is simple to develop, use, and scale.

Then Tektronix named it as “only commercially available active single-ended probe utilizing a seven-meter probe cable.” This may appear to be making a big issue out of a minor point, but the inclusion of one extra meter (compared to equivalent probes on the market) has its uses. For flying probe tests, for example, route through automated systems frequently necessitates additional length. This is especially useful in situations where the device under test (DUT) needs to be moved away from the oscilloscope.

The TAP1500L cable builds on the company’s IsoVu probe technology, which essentially eliminates common mode interference through optical isolation. It also shares the same specifications as its smaller counterpart, the TAP1500.

These specifications ensure precise signal capture for high-speed devices, with a bandwidth of ?1.5 GHz, a rise time of less than 267 ps, and an input capacitance of ?1 pF.