New-Tech Europe | April 2016 | Digital edition

analyzer bandwidth is one example of how aerospace ATE systems can scale to support the latest radar, communications, and signal intelligence systems. Historically, most high-mix test systems in aerospace/defense haven’t included RF ATE subsystems as part of the core configuration due to the cost/benefit analysis of adding high- performance (high-price) RF test equipment to cover a small set of LRUs. The asset utilization simply couldn’t justify the expense. As the number of RF-capable LRUs increases and RF instrumentation becomes more cost effective, it’s becoming more common for RF equipment to be part of core high-mix test system configurations. Traditional ATE systems commonly used the “bolt-on” RF sub-system strategy due to the cost of RF equipment. As RF technology becomes more prevalent in LRUs and RF test equipment costs come down, we’ll see RF test equipment become integrated into the core system. To illustrate the complexity facing the test engineer, let’s use an example of a test system for a direction-finding, multi-antenna radar subsystem. In the manufacturing environment, it’s reasonable to assume that each antenna will be tested serially using a high-performance signal source and a wide-band vector signal analyzer, along with some high-speed serial communication for controlling the UUT. Saying this is easy would be a massive overgeneralization, but when you compare this to the capabilities of the maintenance test system, it sounds like a walk in the park. So whose job is it to develop that complex test system for planned maintenance and field defective units? That’s right, the test engineer. When performing maintenance tests or analyzing a returned unit from the

The evolution of NI vector signal analyzer bandwidth is one example of how aerospace ATE systems can scale to support the latest radar, communications, and signal intelligence systems.

Traditional ATE systems commonly used the “bolt-on” RF sub-system strategy due to the cost of RF equipment. As RF technology becomes more prevalent in LRUs and RF test equipment costs come down, we’ll see RF test equipment become integrated into the core system.

equipment emulation. Rapid RF Evolution

market. If we apply the SDI approach to the oscilloscope challenges above, the test engineer (or TPS developer) can easily implement custom trigger functionality on the FPGA of the SDI to emulate legacy trigger technology. Some go further and use digital signal processing to emulate the analog performance of the legacy instrument’s analog-to-digital converter technology. While difficult to accomplish, emulating legacy instrument capabilities greatly reduces the risk of TPS migration issues. Software- Designed, or Synthetic Instruments, offer a unique approach to test

On the other side of the spectrum (literally and figuratively) is the challenge of keeping pace with the rapid evolution of RF technologies engineered into radars, signal intelligence systems, communications equipment, and other line-replaceable units (LRUs). This rapid pace of innovation keeps test engineers on their toes in terms of building scalable architectures that can not only test the technologies of today, but scale to support the next ”wave” of RF capabilities. The evolution of NI vector signal

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