Blogs
Did You Know? GaGe RazorMax Express Digitizer/Oscilloscope: An Efficient & Cost-Effective Tool for High-Energy Physics Particle Counting Applications
Introduction Figure 1. Examples of photo-mulitiplier tubes, or PMTs (Photo courtesy of Hamamatsu). An important category of experimental physics is nuclear and particle physics, a near synonym for high-energy physics. A broad range of experiments in this domain are classed as scattering experiments in which an incident particle hits a target and the resulting scattered particles are studied. Scattering processes can involve the creation or annihilation of particles. The modern approach to studying scattered particles is to employ particle detectors, devices that detect individual particles impinging upon them. This paper provides an overview of typical instruments [...]
Whitepaper: What Defines Performance in High-Speed Digitizers
Introduction Today’s advanced, PC-based digitizers for high-speed data acquisition are necessary for myriad applications – ranging from signal analysis, lidar, ultrasound imaging and non-destructive testing, to communications, particle physics, mass spectroscopy and more. This article highlights how digitizers are unique and describes the unique performance parameters engineers should use when selecting a high-speed digitizer. Digitizers Cater to In-Process Signal Testing While digitizers and Digital Storage Oscilloscopes (DSOs) both use Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) chips as their core electronics they are different tools. The DSO is optimized for the probing and visualization of signals that are typically encountered on [...]
What Defines Performance in High-Speed Digitizers? Published in Electronic Products & Technology July 2024
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Article: High-Performance Digitizers in Semiconductor Manufacturing Applications
High-Performance Digitizers in Semiconductor Manufacturing Applications PC-based high-speed, high-resolution digitizers perform critical data acquisition functions during semiconductor fabrication, die packaging, and final chip testing. Introduction Data acquisition is a critical element of quality control and compliance testing during three stages of semiconductor manufacture. The first stage is fabrication, in which single-crystal semiconductor wafers are subject to various operations that leave them imprinted with micro-circuitry patterns. During the second stage, the wafers are diced up into individual silicon “die” that are packaged into final chips. The third stage involves functional testing of the final chips to [...]
Aviation NewsBrief: Industry Growth Faces Trained Technician Shortage
Introduction Prior to the COVID pandemic, the average age of a highly trained aircraft technician was 57. The airline industry, like so many others, reacted to the pandemic by reducing operations and offering early retirement as way of balancing the workforce with demand. Now the airline industry is experiencing unprecedented growth and thanks to the early retirement of senior MRO technicians, the industry is experiencing a shortfall in its population of qualified personnel. The Problem: Too Few Young Mechanics Joining the Ranks Not enough young mechanics are joining the trade. Exacerbating the situation is [...]
GaGe Whitepaper: Use of a PC-Based Digitizer in a Medical Acoustic Microscopy System
Use of a PC-Based Digitzer in a Medical Acoustic Microscopy System By Andrew Dawson, Ph. D-GaGe (a Vitrek brand) Introduction ABSTRACT: Construction of a medical acoustic microscopy system is discussed with focus upon usage of a PC-based high-performance GaGe RazorMax digitizer. Three main aspects of the RazorMax’s operation are addressed: usage of Dynamic Range Expansion (DRE) to maximize the detectability of small ultrasonic echoes, high-speed PCI Express Data Streaming for the fastest scanning speed and usage of GaGe’s Trigger Out signal for efficient and synchronous ultrasonic triggering. Conventional ultrasonic imaging [...]
GaGe Whitepaper: Ground-Breaking Lightning Study Uses GaGe Razor Express High-Speed Digitizer
Ground-Breaking Lightning Study Uses GaGe Razor Express High-Speed Digitizer By Gerald Allgaier, GaGe (a Vitrek brand) Introduction Razor Express digitizer is an integral part of VHF broadband interferometer designed to investigate high-energy radiation from lightning strikes and multi-stroke positive cloud-to-ground flashes. A doctoral dissertation published in 2022 by Michelle Urbani, a PhD candidate at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech describes the development of a VHF broadband interferometer to investigate and better understand unsolved lightning phenomena [1]. Very high frequency (VHF) is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) designation for radio [...]
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PCI Express (PCIe) Data Streaming
All Gage PCI Express (PCIe) CompuScope Digitizers are capable of streaming acquired waveform data through the PCIe bus directly to the host PC RAM by utilizing the eXpert PCIe Data Streaming Firmware. By contrast, in standard Memory Mode operations the waveform data is first acquired to the digitizer card's onboard memory, acquisition is stopped, and then the data residing in onboard memory can be transferred to the host PC system. eXpert PCIe Data Streaming Mode operations provide two distinct advantages over standard Memory Mode. First, Streaming Mode may overcome the acquisition time limit imposed by the size volume of [...]