Webcast: Finding and Troubleshooting Intermittent Signal Faults, Dec. 7, 1 p.m. EST

By Plant Engineering Staff December 5, 2006

Intermittent circuit faults can be one of the most time consuming and difficult problems a design or test engineer encounters. This seminar will discuss best practices for using all brands and models of digital oscilloscopes to identify and troubleshoot this type of circuit failure.

Basic techniques start with the use of fast signal acquisition in persistence mode to view the occurrence of an intermittent failure and methods to set up an‘exclusion trigger,’ which allows the oscilloscope to find abnormally-shaped signals — even when the user does not know the nature of the aberrant signal. Parameter histograms and trend lines can identify the occurrence of a rare failure and give clues as to its cause.

More advanced material will include a discussion of identifying the source(s) of intermittent failures when performing eye pattern testing or jitter measurements. The primary content of the seminar will be practical examples of intermittent instabilities in clocks, serial data signals, power supplies, eye diagram failures, and other types of intermittent signal faults encountered in real world engineering. Finally, there will be an introduction of WaveScan, a new technology which can act as a‘finder’ to search long data records for a rare event or as a ‘soft trigger’ to monitor live incoming signals and identify portions that differ from the normal signal shape. Any engineer who occasionally needs to characterize the presence of intermittent signal misbehavior or troubleshoot its source is invited to attend.

What you will learn in this free Webcast:

• Best practices for using digital oscilloscopes to identify and troubleshoot intermittent signal failure

• How to identify the source(s) of intermittent failures when performing eye pattern testing or jitter measurements

• Practical examples of intermittent instabilities in clocks, serial data signals, power supplies, eye diagram failures, and other types of intermittent signal faults encountered in real world

• An introduction into the new technology, WaveScan, which can act as a‘finder’ to search long data records for a rare event or as a “soft trigger” to monitor live incoming signals and identify portions which differ from the normal signal shape.

For more information or to register, click here .