Capacitance Sensing for Non-Contact Thickness Measurements of Insulating Materials
Capacitance sensing can be used to make non-contact thickness measurements for most insulating materials. Capacitance sensors are known for their ability to precisely measure the thickness and position of conductive targets, but what’s less known is that these sensors can also measure the thickness of non-conductive materials. Examples include glass, sapphire, and plastics, as well as semi-insulating semiconductor materials such as GaAs and silicon nitride. Analog vs. Digital Technologies MTI Instruments, a global supplier of precision measurement technologies, takes the guesswork out of what used to be a complex measurement for non-conductive materials. MTI's Digital Accumeasure system features a [...]
High-Spatial Resolution Lidar
High-Spatial Resolution Lidar Customer Case In Lidar, which is Laser Radar, spatial resolution is limited by the laser pulse width. This customer's laser pulse width is 3.5 ns. The total range interrogated by the Lidar system will be on the order of 250 meters. The customer needs to digitize the Lidar signal at 500 MS/s into 8 MegaSamples of memory. 8-bit digitizer resolution will be sufficient and they would also prefer to keep software programming at an absolute minimum. GaGe Case Solution Had the customer required higher resolution, say 12 or 14-bit, and sampling rates of 100 MS/s, then [...]
Ozone Profiling
Ozone Profiling Customer Case Ozone profiling involves many averaging operations, which makes it very difficult to obtain the results immediately. There can be a delay of many days before a reliable reading is dispatched, which, by then, would be too late to take measures to protect the population and agriculture from the harmful effects. A customer has an Ozone profiling Lidar capable of downloading readings to a PC. The customer wanted to speed up the process of the averaging and analysis of the readings, also called data reduction, to near real-time speeds. This could be achieved if it was [...]
Capacitance Sensing Provides Two Ways to Measure EV Battery Plate Thickness GalleryCapacitance Sensing Provides Two Ways to Measure EV Battery Plate Thickness
Application Notes-MTI, Brand-MTI, Industry-Automotive, Industry-Energy, Industry-Manufacturing, News-MTI, News-MTI-Instrumentation, News-MTI-Metrology, News-Product Updates, Products-MTI-Capacitance, Products-MTI-Laser/Fiber Optic, Products-MTI-Semiconductor/Metrology, Z-REPUB, z1
Capacitance Sensing Provides Two Ways to Measure EV Battery Plate Thickness
MTI Instruments has released an application note that explains how to use capacitance to measure the thickness of the lithium battery plates in electric vehicles (EVs). Manufacturers need to check these plates for thickness before calendaring them together to ensure that the overall battery diameter is within specifications. In EV batteries, lithium ion compounds are applied to either a copper plate substrate (cathode) or an aluminum substrate (anode plate). These conductive plates are separated by a dielectric. MTI Instruments, a global supplier of precision measurement solutions, makes capacitance sensors that can measure thicknesses materials down to nanometers. Moreover, MTI [...]
Radar Waveform Sampling & Processing
Radar Waveform Sampling & Processing Customer Case A customer involved in Naval Research needed to sample and process radar waveforms, to be used as reference in their lab. They were looking at implementing a digitizer solution. They needed 8-bit vertical resolution and a sampling speed of 500 MS/s. The customer also needed 2 GB of acquisition memory and wanted a portable solution. The customer also wanted to develop software in MATLAB and LabVIEW. GaGe Case Solution The customer was looking at the deepest acquisition memory available so they showed most interest in the CompuScope 8500. With its 8-bit vertical [...]
Polar Ice Thickness Measurements
Polar Ice Thickness Measurements Customer Case The customer is an academic researcher in climate change. He wants to record the depth of the permafrost ice sheets in the arctic regions of Canada, Greenland and elsewhere. The change in world climate is directly related to the changes in the thickness of polar ice. Abrupt changes can be a predictor of climatic changes in the world. The measuring apparatus is an ice-penetrating radar mounted on an aircraft flying at 500-600 meters. The radar pulses at 20 kHz Pulse Repeat Frequency (PRF), captures the reflections of groups of 32-64 pulses. Each pulse [...]
Storm Watch / Tornado Radar
Storm Watch / Tornado Radar Customer Case On average, the United States experiences 100,000 thunderstorms each year, causing about 1,000 tornadoes. The customer is trying to determine what meteorological conditions enable a large rotating thunderstorm (a "supercell") to drop a dangerous tornado-funnel. By determining what conditions must exist for the formation of an especially fierce tornado, researchers hope to develop accurate predictions of when and where such a tornado may touch down, giving the people time to evacuate. The customer wants to study tornadoes and other severe-storm features with an X-Band polarimetric Doppler radar. This mobile cloud-profiling radar is [...]
Atmospheric Remote Sensing
Atmospheric Remote Sensing Customer Case The customer requires a combination of hardware and software ("data system") to do live update sampling, processing, display, and archival of atmospheric measurements using an airborne Lidar system. This system, which continuously emits laser pulses, measures line-of-sight velocity and backscattered signals at a particular range from the aircraft. Real-time performance is necessary to observe the state of the atmosphere and to assess the performance of their instrument. Their requirement is similar to that of laser Doppler anemometry. The signal from the Lidar system will vary continuously with time and the signal waveform will be [...]
How Aviation MROs Can Maximize Labor Efficiency and Asset Uptime GalleryHow Aviation MROs Can Maximize Labor Efficiency and Asset Uptime
Application Notes-MTI, Brand-MTI, Industry-Aerospace, Industry-Compliance Testing, Industry-Government/Military, Industry-Manufacturing, Industry: Transportation, News-MTI-PBS, Products-MTI-Engine Balancing, Z-REPUB, z1
How Aviation MROs Can Maximize Labor Efficiency and Asset Uptime
MTI Instruments is supplying the aviation industry with solutions to the skilled labor shortage and reduced equipment availability. No, our Albany, New York company isn’t providing aviation MROs with more flight line personnel, engine mechanics, or Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Instead, we’re delivering precision measurement solutions that can help MROs to maximize labor productivity and asset uptime. Solving the Skilled Labor Shortage Aviation MROs have a choice. They can wait for training programs to provide new workers, poach workers from competitors, invest in robots, or look for ways to gain greater efficiency from existing labor assets. About 18 months [...]
Nuclear Decay Experiment
Nuclear Decay Experiment Customer Case A customer wants to measure nuclear decay rates of various radioactive isotopes. With each nuclear decay, the isotope under study simultaneously emits a beta particle, which is a high-speed electron, and a gamma particle, which is a high-frequency photon of light. Beta particles are detected with an efficiency of over 90% by a proportional gas counter that surrounds the radioactive isotope. Surrounding only one quarter of the isotope, a sodium iodide scintillator crystal detects gamma particles with about 25% efficiency. When it impinges on the scintillator crystal, a gamma creates a flash of visible [...]