Laser Excitation of Single Atoms
Laser Excitation of Single Atoms Customer Case The client is an academic department conducting fundamental atomic physics research. The target of a Laser is a single Alkali atom, which enlarges to the size of several microns, upon receiving the pulse excitation. The enlarged atom is called a Rydberg atom and can reach the size of a grain of sand. The enlarged atom has new physical properties that are characterized by a detector that creates fast analog data streams. The setup of the experiment involves generating femtosecond Laser pulses, and capturing a 0 to 15 Volt ramp function with a [...]
The Growing Need for Industry 4.0 Testing and Validation Tools
Industry 4.0 means that manufacturers need to test and validate more sensors. MTI Instruments 1510A portable signal generator can help. Industry 4.0 is spurring a dramatic increase in the number of sensors that manufacturers need to install, test, validate, and maintain. Although these industrial sensors are packaged to withstand harsh environments, they’re still susceptible to performance-related problems. Whether it’s to support predictive maintenance, asset monitoring, or process automation, proper testing and validation is required to keep systems running smoothly. Otherwise, the data that sensors collect won’t enable the operators of smart factories to make the right decisions.Smart factories can [...]
Laser Based Position Measurement System
Laser Based Position Measurement System Customer Case In order to test their Laser Based Position Measurement Systems, the customer needs to characterize an output pulse from his circuitry which lasts for approximately 5 microseconds. According to the customer's estimates, he must use a sampling rate of 50 MSPS or higher in order to be able to analyze the signal completely. An additional requirement of the test system is that a specific number of successive pulses be digitized and then averaged in order to eliminate system noise. The number of such successive pulses must be variable. The repeat rate of [...]
High-Power Laser Lamp Array Tester
High-Power Laser Lamp Array Tester Customer Case The customer is building a tester for an array of high-power laser lamps. These lamps draw 35,000 Amps of current. The test involves sending a control signal to the laser lamp and measuring the time between the signal and the switching on of the lamp (which is picked up by a photodiode). This time is representative of the quality of the lamp. The customer currently has a 16-channel system, and would like to explore increasing the number of channels. In the customer's present system, eight CompuScope 512 cards are installed in a [...]
Silicon Carbide vs. Silicon in EV Power Electronics
Compare silicon carbide vs. silicon for electric vehicle (EV) power electronics and learn about SiC wafer measurement. As demand for electric vehicles (EVs) continues to grow, manufacturers are comparing two semiconductor technologies, silicon carbide and silicon, for power electronics applications. Silicon carbide (SiC) provides the high temperature resistance, low power consumption, rigidity, and support for smaller, thinner designs that EV power electronics need. Examples of SiC’s current applications include on-board DC/DC converters, off-board DC fast chargers, on-board battery chargers, EV powertrains, and automotive lighting for LEDs. According to Automotive World, SiC technology could also drive future EV innovations [...]
Synchronizing Over A Wide Sampling Speed Range
Synchronizing Over A Wide Sampling Speed Range Customer Case The client has set up an experiment where he needs to generate a stimulus signal and apply it to a He-Ne Laser with some polarizing optics. The response signal is a measurement of the Faraday effect. The signal is noisy and requires averaging over a very long time. The stimulus and response must be synchronized over a wide frequency range. For synchronization, the application requires a wide band of sampling speed from, 1 KS/s to 50 MS/s. GaGe Case Solution While GaGe's CompuScope 14100 provides the required digitizer performance, it [...]
Time Resolved Spectroscopy of Protein Crystals
Time Resolved Spectroscopy of Protein Crystals Customer Case The customer is involved in Time Resolved Spectroscopy of protein crystals. This involves shooting a laser onto the protein crystals and measuring the pulses generated by the crystals (as they are projected out of the sample) and their decay over time. Due to the very noisy nature of the return signals, it is essential to average many pulses in order to recover the pulse shape and measure the decay. The decay takes place over many tens of milliseconds, so it is necessary to acquire very long records (in the order of [...]
Hyper Remote Laser Sensor
Hyper Remote Laser Sensor Customer Case The customer is at the prototype stage for building a hyper remote sensor which will fly over the ocean and be able to see 100 to 200 feet below the surface. The sensor is being designed in order to determine the composition of the ocean and the ocean floor. This remote sensor will be extremely useful in the detection of pollution and studying the way pollution is being distributed by ocean currents. It will also be useful to the military (navy) for creating mine-finding systems. A deep blue laser will be used to [...]
Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF)
Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) Customer Case A customer has developed a breakthrough technique for the application of laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection to high performance liquid chromatography, capillary e lectrophoresis, sequencing and microbial analysis. The technique involves using fluorescence decay curves at multiple wavelengths simultaneously, leading to true 3-D fluorescence spectroscopy (i.e., fluorescence intensity as a function of wavelength and delay time relative to pulsed excitation). They have a requirement to increase the laser pulse repetition frequency (PRF) from 20-50 pulses per second to 500-1000 pulses per second. Basically, they want to collect and time resolve the fluorescence signal for [...]
EV Batteries Need Thickness Gauging for Lower Costs and Higher Performance
EV batteries need to cost less and last longer. Until the e-mobility industry solves these challenges, electric vehicle (EV) adoption won’t match the hype that’s driven by Tesla, the established automakers, and a host of startups who are attracting investors. According to Axios, the expense of owning an electric vehicle will exceed that of owning a conventional one until EV batteries cost less than $100/KWh to produce. Unfortunately, the EV industry isn’t expected to hit that target for another ten years. Yet, there is some encouraging news. Less expensive and better performing EV batteries are just a few years [...]


