Faster battery test for electric vehicles.

Joint effort to help improve efficiency and power capacity for EV battery testing to address climate change.

NI has collaborated with EA Elektro-Automatik (EA) to offer bidirectional power supplies that support battery cycling and power-level test for electric vehicles (EVs). EA’s best-in-class power supplies will be integrated into NI’s software-connected toolchain as part of NI’s power electronics offering to optimize battery test workflows. This joint effort accelerates the path to Zero Emissions by shortening time to market and improving safety and performance throughout the lifecycle of the battery.

The U.N. 2021 Climate Report’s findings that global temperatures will reach critical levels in the next 20 years have accelerated the demand for broad-scale implementation of EVs as a critical step to limit greenhouse gas emissions. However, validating EV batteries remains a critical factor in scaling this technology, as the battery makes up 70% of the cost of EV development.

Power electronics are essential for EV battery testing to meet safety and performance expectations, without compromising on the flexibility that rapid innovation requires. Integrating EA’s devices into NI’s toolchain gives EV test engineers and lab managers more flexible battery cycling configurations for their test labs, and quicker response time for new power level test requirements.

“NI and EA Elektro-Automatik share the same vision of providing high performance and flexibility for test engineers to ensure test labs meet their evolving needs,” said Noah Redding, NI senior director of validation for NI’s Transportation Business Unit. “As demand for electric vehicles continues to grow, we at NI understand it is our responsibility to help the market Engineer Ambitiously to meet this moment and accelerate the path to Vision Zero. We are looking forward to the opportunities that will come through this collaboration with EA in helping engineers move faster and optimize battery test workflows to bring this important technology to the market.”

“This partnership combines industry-leading control, measurement and power into state-of-the-art test systems. These systems allow customers to speed up time to market while driving corporate zero emissions initiatives,” says Eric Turner, Managing Director of EA Elektro-Automatik, Inc USA. “The renewable energy test market is an essential step in product development and production. EA is proud to be a technology enabler via power regeneration technology that reduces energy consumption by up to 96%.”

@NIglobal @niukie @UNFCCC #elektroautomatik #TandM #Transport

Automated test and automated measurement systems.

For more than 40 years, NI (National Instruments) have developed automated test and automated measurement systems that help engineers solve the world’s toughest challenges.

PEMA, are the NI authorised distributor in Ireland for NI's software-connected test and measurement solutions. "Together, we are delivering the solutions engineers and technology-focused companies need to efficiently meet customers' demands." said Peter Dooley, Managing Director.

NI multifunction I/O devices offer a mix of I/O with varying channel counts, sample rates, output rates, and other features to meet any measurement requirements.

In addition, the DAQExpress interactive measurement software enables quick hardware setup and data visualisation, while the NI-DAQmx driver enables complete customisation of measurement and automation applications from a variety of supported programming languages; both of these come included with the offer devices.

@PEMALimited @NIglobal #TandM #Ireland

Suppliers honoured.

Analog Devices (ADI) recently hosted its inaugural Supplier Day event to honour and recognise its suppliers. Held in Boston (MASS USA), the event brought together 100 of the semiconductor company’s top suppliers for a day of recognition, celebration and relationship building. A total of 18 awards were presented for outstanding performance and contributions.

National Instruments CEO Alex Davern (centre) accepts the Supplier of the Year Award from John Hassett (right), Senior Vice President Global Operations and Technology at Analog Devices. Also in pic is Kevin Bisking, Global Account Manager for NI.

The first event of its size and scope for ADI, Supplier Day 2019 was hosted by John Hassett, Senior Vice President Global Operations and Technology at ADI, alongside key leaders from the Global Operations and Technology group. In his opening address, Hassett shared ADI’s business strategy and its impact on the supply chain, and discussed the challenges the company faces as it continues to strengthen its core business while extending its value.

“Each of our suppliers plays a critical role in ADI’s overall strategy by offering differentiated, reliable and cost-effective solutions,” said Hassett. “This year we’ve recognised a number of our supplier partners, who have individually and collectively done a tremendous job of enabling ADI’s strategic objectives and providing outstanding support to our team as we compete, thrive and grow as a solutions company to stay ahead of what’s possible.”

The awards recognised excellence across five categories, including Quality, Delivery, Service/Responsiveness, New Product Time to Revenue and Corporate Social Responsibility. National Instruments Corp. was awarded Supplier of the Year for its exceptional performance in the development and delivery of innovative test equipment and solutions, supporting test for many of ADI’s existing and emerging product requirements.

The Awardees:

Supplier of the Year
National Instruments Corp.

Top Performer Contracted Manufacturing – Front End
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Top Performer Contracted Manufacturing – Back End
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.

Top Performer Equipment & Services – Front End
Evatec AG

Top Performer Equipment & Services – Back End
National Instruments Corp.

Top Performer Materials – Front End
GlobalWafers Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Top Performer Materials – Back End
C-Pak Pte Ltd.

Outstanding Support for ADI/LTC Integration
United Test & Assembly Center, Ltd.

Outstanding Support for ADI/LTC Integration
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp.

Best in Quality – Established Supplier
Tokyo Electron, Ltd.

Best in Quality – Niche / Developing Supplier
Chipbond Technology Corp.

Best in Delivery – Established Supplier
Coilcraft, Inc.

Best in Delivery – Niche / Developing Supplier
ASTI Telford and Reel Service Group

Best in Service & Responsiveness – Established Supplier
ASM Pacific Technology, Ltd.

Best in Service & Responsiveness – Niche / Developing Supplier
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp.

Best in New Product Support – Established Supplier
Photronics, Inc.

Best in New Product Support – Niche / Developing Supplier
Compass Technology, Inc.

Corporate Social Responsibility Award
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

 @ADI_News #Semiconductors #USA

Update enhances developer productivity.

National Instruments (NI) has announced the latest release of LabVIEW 2019 and LabVIEW NXG. These releases are proof of NI’s continued investment in the next generation of LabVIEW and systems engineering software. NI continues to focus efforts around optimisation in the test and measurement processes in key areas of test development integration, efficient automated testing, and access to data & systems.

The latest release of LabVIEW 2019 increases developer productivity through improved visibility in the IDE, powerful enhancements in debugging, and new datatypes to the G-language. Additionally, LabVIEW 2019 addresses a critical pain point for engineers: managing dependencies and versioning with fragmented, non-standardised methods, which perpetuate as challenges in code deployment. With the new distribution option of package installers in LabVIEW 2019, users can now implement a standardised distribution method with inherent version management and automatic dependency management to confidently replicate and share system software.

The newest version of LabVIEW NXG simplifies the most time-consuming tasks in automated test and automated measurement applications, from deploying and distributing code faster than before, importing and exporting MATLAB® data (. mat) for improved interoperability with third-party software, and additional capabilities added to Web VIs to give users better interaction and control with their applications. These enhancements help engineers meet challenging time-to-market requirements by reducing time-intensive set-up through rapid connectivity to instrumentation, removing integration bottlenecks that traditionally arise in bringing in 3rd party IP through native interoperability with other programming languages and toolkits, and increasing access to important data by lowering the barrier of entry to web technology.

"Using WebVIs allows us to provide our users an interface to the test management database from anywhere, anytime, and we were able to develop the web interfaces using just our core LabVIEW skills. We saved development time and the users have instant access to review data or change test criteria.” said Jeremy Marquis, Engineering Team Leader at G Systems, Inc.

As NI builds on its more than 30-year investment in software, these LabVIEW releases continue the fast-paced updates aimed to expand engineering capabilities from design to test. Whether an engineer is using LabVIEW for the first time or has been on an active user for years, LabVIEW 2019 and LabVIEW NXG are immediately accessible and will make an immediate impact.

@niukie  #PAuto #TandM @EdelmanUK

Deployed systems management.

National Instruments (NI) has announced SystemLink, application software for distributed systems management. SystemLink helps improve operational efficiency and decrease maintenance costs through a centralized interface for automating tasks such as software deployment, remote device configuration and system health performance monitoring.

Trends like the Industrial Internet of Things, 5G and the electrification of vehicles, coupled with existing realities like maintaining distributed legacy systems, are inspiring companies to seek new approaches to systems management. The push towards connected and centrally coordinated systems has transformed theories and pilot projects into large-scale, distributed deployments with impactful business returns. Companies derive these returns from the actionable, data-driven insights that help them maximize uptime, increase efficiency and drive future product innovation. At the same time, companies need to balance their adoption of new, connected technologies while preserving support for valuable legacy assets with long life cycles.

Systems that manage, maintain and extract insight from small-scale pilots or groups of systems are relatively straightforward to implement. However, attention now shifts toward the next challenge, which is scaling and managing large deployments, varying life cycle stages and distributed testers and nodes across entire plants, fabs and factories. This challenge includes tasks like remote software and system configuration as well as data management and performance monitoring, and applies to industries such as aerospace and defense, transportation and manufacturing.

SystemLink enables engineers to connect, deploy, and manage distributed systems, both NI and third-party, through a centralized interface accessible from anywhere, making it possible for them to remotely configure and deploy software, monitor the health and performance of their equipment, manage alarms, and visualize application parameters. Additionally, engineers can automate the communication of data to customer-defined dashboards and remote operator interfaces.

“SystemLink substantially reduces the administration time necessary to deploy software and manage configurations on test systems,” said Daniel Huang, head of testing technology at Siemens AG. “This enables our engineering teams to focus on higher value tasks.”

To meet demands like testing higher complexity DUTs and shorter timeframes, engineers need tools tailored to their needs that they can efficiently use through their workflow, helping them to meet their exact application requirements. SystemLink is the latest addition to NI’s software-centric platform that features products tailored to needs within distinct stages of their workflow – products that have been adopted in whole or in part by more than 300,000 active users. With LabVIEW engineering system design software at its core and TestStand test management software handling overall execution, this workflow helps to improve the productivity of test and validation labs across many industries. Each piece of the workflow is also interoperable with third-party software to maximize code/IP reuse and draws on the LabVIEW Tools Network ecosystem of add-ons and tools for more application-specific requirements.

@NIukie #PAuto #IIoT

Reducing electric vehicle test development times.

Major automotive manufacturers like Subaru are using National Instruments (NI) hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) technology to simulate actual road conditions for electric vehicle testing, eliminating environmental factors to reduce test time and costs.

Traditionally, engineers have conducted vehicle tests using finished cars on test courses or public roads to check the vehicle’s performance and safety response. However, certain limitations, such as weather and fluctuating road surface conditions, can make it difficult to conduct reproducible tests on roads in a timely manner. Moreover, electric vehicles are extremely complex due to their many subsystems, which are all interdependent on each other. This complexity makes the job challenging for automotive test engineers with short development cycles and pressure to limit costs.

To combat these issues, Subaru replaced the roads in the validation tests with a NI HIL simulation solution built on NI PXI products and LabVIEW software. With the HIL system, Subaru can eliminate environmental factors and thoroughly and efficiently test a vehicle’s embedded controller in a virtual environment before running real-world diagnostics on the complete system.

“By using NI PXI products and LabVIEW, we were able to completely implement a customized HIL system in just one to two weeks and develop our software in-house,” said Daisuke Umiguchi, Electrified Power Unit Research and Experiment Dept., Subaru Corporation. “This helped us keep product purchasing costs to around one-third of the cost of adopting solutions from other companies, and, because of our familiarity with LabVIEW, keep our software development costs to around one-sixth of the cost of commissioning an outside developer.”

Subaru further outfitted its vehicle test solution with a controller-driven dynamometer by HORIBA and CarSim vehicle dynamics simulation software deployed by Virtual Mechanics. Together, they produce load conditions equivalent to those generated on actual roads. This driving system transmits the calculated values to the NI HIL system in real time to create closed-loop control between the models on the HIL system and the driving system. As a result, the HIL interaction system can apply the appropriate load to the vehicle throughout the tests.

Subaru plans to use this test system at the final stages of development for electric vehicles as a final quality check, and eventually expand its use for all car types. By adopting this system, Subaru anticipates reducing labor hours by half compared to conventional methods.

 @niukie #Transport #NIglobal #Pauto

Test Solution for Sub-6 GHz 5G.

National Instruments (NI) has just announced a sub-6 GHz 5G test reference solution compliant with the 3GPP Release 15 specification for 5G New Radio (NR).

With commercial 5G NR deployments below 6 GHz on the horizon, engineers are actively developing sub-6 GHz 5G RF components and devices. The accelerated pace of 5G standardization is driving intense pressure to bring products to market quickly. NI’s sub-6 GHz 5G NR reference solution is a cost-effective and high-performance option for test that helps engineers quickly characterize their designs and more easily transition from R&D to production test environments.

The new reference test solution from NI is well-suited for testing new wideband RFICs, especially those operating in the 3.3 – 4.2 GHz and 4.4 – 5.0 GHz bands. Engineers can test devices operating with 400 MHz of continuous signal bandwidth and beyond with the PXIe-5840 Vector Signal Transceiver (VST), which includes 1 GHz of instantaneous signal generation and analysis bandwidth up to 6 GHz. With the NI VST, the solution delivers residual EVM performance better than 0.32 percent (-50 dB) for 100 MHz NR signals along with faster measurement speed.

A critical component of this solution is NI-RFmx NR measurement software, which has evolved in conjunction with the 3GPP specification. The latest version of NI-RFmx NR measurement software offers 5G NR waveforms and measurement capability compliant with the first official specification of 3GPP Release 15 for non-standalone NR, which empowers engineers to test both OFDMA and DFT-s-OFDM carrier aggregated waveforms with flexible subcarrier spacing from 15 kHz to 120 kHz.

“Our new offerings for 5G test are just the latest in a long line of NI innovations helping engineers bring 5G technologies to market more quickly,” said Jason White, director of RF and wireless test at NI. “By combining high-performance RF measurement capability with extremely fast and flexible measurement software, we are helping engineers reduce time-to-market and measurement correlation time by reusing the same instrumentation and measurement science in multiple phases of product development.”

NI’s new technology for 5G test also supplements a comprehensive product portfolio for RF and semiconductor test, including measurement software for 2G, 3G, LTE-Advanced Pro, WiFi 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5 and more. In addition, engineers can use the NI VST alongside more than 600 modular PXI products, spanning DC to mmWave, to create comprehensive semiconductor characterization and manufacturing test systems.

@niukie #TandM #PAuto

Technical innovation acknowledged!

National Instruments (NI) has honored the “ADAS iiT Consortium– Innovation in Test” with its 2018 Technical Innovation Award. The prize is awarded to partner companies who employ new NI technologies at an early stage, thereby reflecting their roles as early adopters who promote innovation in particular. The four partner companies in the ADAS iiT Consortium have pooled their expertise to create a unique one-stop solution for simulating and validating Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for autonomously operated vehicles.

(l. to r., back to front): Ingo Schumacher (National Instruments), Dr. Gerd Schmitz (S.E.A. Data Technology GmbH), Georg Plasswilm (National Instruments), Michael Konrad (Konrad Technologies GmbH), Michael Dams (National Instruments), Tony Vento (National Instruments), Frank Heidemann (SET GmbH), Robert Morton (National Instruments), and Josef Eiswirt (measX GmbH & Co. KG).

On National Instruments (NI) Alliance Partner Day in Fürstenfeldbruck, a town outside Munich, NI has honored the ADAS iiT Consortium with its 2018 Technical Innovation Award. In so doing, NI has recognized the innovative approach taken by the consortium, founded in 2017, in pooling their expertise to offer their customers a synchronized one-stop testing solution for the simulation and validation of autonomously operated vehicles in a virtual environment. The test solutions that were developed are based on the standardized platforms of National Instruments.

NI’s Technical Innovation Award has been awarded since 2013. It honors partner companies that, in their role as early adopters, have deployed new NI technologies early on and have thereby particularly distinguished themselves in promoting innovation.

Consortium offers innovative test solution for driver assistance systems “ADAS iiT – Innovation in Test” is an amalgamation of four NI partner companies (Konrad Technologies GmbH, SET GmbH, S.E.A. Data Technolgy GmbH und measX GmbH & Co. KG) formed with the goal of making autonomous driving even safer. By cooperating, the partners have pursued a unique strategy to develop test solutions for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in autonomously driven vehicles and in doing so, have pooled their skills and their many years of experience in the areas of sensor and radar simulation (Konrad), Hardware-in-the-Loop (SET), V2X communication, GNSS simulation (S.E.A.) and data management (measX). “Autonomous driving is one of the most discussed subjects of our day. The development of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems is moving forward rapidly — but until now, the testing procedures for it were always very expensive”, emphasizes Michael Konrad, Managing Director of Konrad Technologies GmbH. “That is precisely where ADAS iiT comes in, It offers the customer an integrated test solution based on the NI platform under real-life conditions — that is something that is unique in the marketplace.” Speeding up development programs for autonomous vehicles ADAS iiT offers virtual test drives to check modern sensors and Sensor Fusion Electronic Control Units (ECU) and delivers turnkey-ready, flexible ADAS end-to-end solutions from a single provider — starting with system architecture and continuing through development, implementation, and validation, all the way to production. Such pooling of skills results in a one-stop offering that portrays real-life test conditions in the laboratory and thus offers the customer great technical, financial and time-related added value. Frank Heidemann, Managing Director of SET GmbH, puts it this way: “Our innovative approach makes efficient testing of the systems possible in less time and at significantly lower cost. The reliability of the test increases at the same time which helps make it possible to bring autonomous vehicles to the market more safely and quickly than had been expected. That is a big added value for our customers.” Customer needs recognized and worked out jointly in the consortium Ingo Schumacher, Systems Engineering Manager CER at National Instruments highlights in particular the focus on customer value: “The consortium has correctly recognized customers’ needs and together developed an integrated test solution that offers the automobile industry a significantly more robust and more effective architecture while shortening and streamlining the development times for automobile manufacturers. Such a targeted collaboration by the NI partner companies is absolutely exemplary.” ADAS iiT has already introduced its approach at many big events, including NI-Week in Austin, Texas and the Automotive Testing Expos in Stuttgart and Shanghai.

@ADASiiT @NIglobal @niukie #PAuto

Developing, deploying and managing automated T+M systems upgrade!

A new release of LabVIEW NXG, the next generation of LabVIEW engineering system design software is now available. Engineers can now test smarter with LabVIEW NXG - quickly set up your instruments, customize tests to your device specifications, and easily view results from any web browser, on any device.

This new version of LabVIEW NXG introduces key functionality and reinvents long-standing benefits, particularly for engineers developing, deploying and managing automated test and measurement systems. This release introduces the WebVI, a VI type for building web-based user interfaces (UIs) that can be deployed to any web browser – PC, tablet or phone – with no plug-ins or installers. Additionally, to reduce hardware configuration time, the new SystemDesigner feature automatically discovers connected hardware, displays installed drivers and directly links to available NI and third-party instrument drivers if they are not yet installed.

Furthermore, this latest release expands hardware support to thousands of box instruments and NI’s high-performance PXI modular instrumentation. Now, LabVIEW NXG also delivers programming capabilities such as object-oriented programming and integration with the industry-leading TestStand test management software.

NI designed several features in LabVIEW NXG, such as the WebVI, for use with existing LabVIEW applications without the need for extensive software refactoring. Engineers can reuse test code, including code written with LabVIEW NXG or LabVIEW, through a new package manager interface built on industry-standard package formats.

“By building test systems using LabVIEW and LabVIEW NXG, I can work with both versions and take advantage of the unique strengths of each,” said Brian Hoover, test software architect at Samsung SDI. “With this next phase of LabVIEW NXG, I can integrate new ways to visualize data, either on the desktop with vector-based UI graphics or in the browser for secure hosting, into my existing LabVIEW applications to simplify reporting test results.”

As NI builds on its more than 30-year investment in software, this latest update to the next generation of LabVIEW continues a series of fast-paced releases aimed to expand engineering capabilities from design to test. Whether you are buying LabVIEW for the first time or have been on an active service contract for years, you can access both the new version of LabVIEW NXG and LabVIEW 2017. From simple DAQ applications to building complex test systems and smart machines, LabVIEW helps reduce time to market and accelerate engineering productivity.

@niukie #TandM #Pauto @NIGlobal

Rugged DAQ devices.

National Instruments (NI) has announced rugged, distributed and synchronized FieldDAQ devices - the most rugged NI DAQ devices ever created.

The growing sophistication of complex electromechanical systems, such as vehicles, aircraft and industrial equipment, means that validation test must become more rigorous to keep pace with innovation. The automotive industry in particular faces strict requirements from evolving government standards and rising customer expectations for new features such as advanced driver assistance. To help ensure the safety, reliability and quality of these systems, acquiring accurate data during testing is fundamental.

To meet these needs, test engineers are moving away from centralized measurement systems that can be susceptible to noise, and toward distributed measurement nodes, in which the digitization and signal conditioning occurs as close to the sensors as possible. Yet more distributed measurement topologies create new challenges. Not only must DAQ devices withstand harsh test environments, they must also acquire synchronized data over an entire system and scale and integrate seamlessly.

NI’s new FieldDAQ devices are the most rugged NI DAQ devices ever created; they can acquire accurate, reliable measurements in the most severe test cell and outdoor environments, including rain, sleet, snow or mud. FieldDAQ devices have an ingress protection rating up to IP67 (dust and water resistant), can operate in -40 °C to 85 °C environments and can sustain 100 g shock and 10 g vibration.

These rugged DAQ devices are built on the flexible and configurable hardware and software platforms that NI is known for, which sets them apart. With open and expandable FieldDAQ solutions, test engineers can keep pace with product design cycles and help reduce the overall cost of test, as opposed to the limitations of existing devices with functionality defined by closed, proprietary software.

“Due to rapid production cycles, no one test is the same,” said Mark Yeager, engineer / lead programmer at Integrated Test and Measurement. “Design engineers tweak the size, performance and efficiency of each component, so our test setups must evolve to meet these requirements. To reduce cost, we must be able to maximize hardware and software reuse, while still adapting to changing requirements.”

FieldDAQ also incorporates Time Sensitive Networking (TSN), the next evolution of the IEEE 802.1 Ethernet standard, providing extremely tight synchronization over a distributed network of DAQ nodes without additional cabling or complex programming. FieldDAQ expands the NI TSN product offering, joining Industrial Controllers, CompactDAQ and CompactRIO. Additionally, because it incorporates TSN, FieldDAQ is capable of being used with third-party TSN solutions from major industrial I/O and control vendors like Bosch Rexroth, B&R Automation and Schneider Electric.

@niukie #PAuto #TandM

MAC layer support!

National Instruments (NI) has announced MAC layer support for its LabVIEW Communications 802.11 Application Framework*. Wireless researchers can take advantage of the new multiuser MAC layer enhancements to the 802.11 Application Framework to go beyond the PHY layer to address complex network-level problems that must be solved to make the 5G vision a reality.

5G brings the promise of unseen services and a broad range of use cases such as powering autonomous vehicles, smart factories and eHospitals. While many of these applications will be delivered over cellular links, many will also be served by private networks based on WiFi, which will make 5G a combination of both licensed and unlicensed wireless protocols.

There are many challenges that wireless researchers must address when working toward a more optimal delivery of joint WiFi and 5G cellular services. One is the ability of 5G network slicing to seamlessly deliver end-to-end orchestration across different radio access technologies. Wireless researchers can pair the 802.11 Application Framework with NI software defined radio hardware to rapidly conduct network-level, real-time, over-the-air prototyping experiments for a wide range of WiFi and 5G MAC/PHY research.

The 802.11 Application Framework also supports up to 80 MHz of real-time bandwidth and full bidirectional communications and includes MAC layer features including CSMA/CA, RTS, CTS, NAV and retransmission. Because the MAC layer is implemented on an FPGA, the 802.11 Application Framework meets the strict timing requirements of the 802.11 specification to form a complete real-time solution. With these new capabilities, users can take advantage of the 802.11 Application Framework out of the box to conduct a wide range of WiFi experiments and seamlessly integrate custom signal processing algorithms and MAC layer protocols in a fraction of the time compared to other approaches.

As participants in NI’s RF/Communications Lead User program, wireless researchers at Texas A&M University use NI’s flexible prototyping solutions for implementing and validating novel MAC-layer algorithms that can improve performance of WiFi, WiGig and 5G protocol stacks operating in unlicensed spectrum.

“The efficiency of MAC protocols is absolutely critical to the performance of wireless networks,” said P.R. Kumar, IEEE fellow and College of Engineering Chair in Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University. “We have been working on MAC protocols to accommodate the increasingly dense wireless deployments while meeting the system performance demands for the next-generation of wireless networks. However, to have confidence in these protocols, we must implement them on hardware. NI’s 802.11 Application Framework provided us with the tools required to verify the performance of these MAC protocols experimentally under real world conditions.”

* Overview of the LabVIEW Communications Application Frameworks.

@niukie #Pauto @labview

IP67 Edge Nodes for IIoT.

The IC-3173 Industrial Controller, National Instrument’s first IP67-rated controller has been announced. The new controller is ideally suited to act as an Industrial Internet of Things edge node in extremely harsh locations including spray down manufacturing environments, test cells and outdoor locations without the need for a protective enclosure. The IP67 rating helps ensure reliable operation in the presence of dust and water, in accordance to IEC standard 60529.

Industrial Controllers are high-performance, fanless devices that deliver high levels of processing power and connectivity for automated image processing, data acquisition and control applications in extreme environments. These controllers feature up to a 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 dual-core processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, 64 GB storage, four Power over Ethernet (PoE) GigE ports, two USB 3.0 ports and two DisplayPorts in a rugged design with no moving parts, and now with an IP rating up to IP67. Industrial Controllers also include a user-programmable Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA, which improves system performance by providing custom I/O timing, synchronization, control and image coprocessing capabilities.

“NI’s Industrial Controllers have a robust set of I/O resources that allow us to use one controller for every facet of our automation needs including testing, vision, motion control and digital I/O,” said Jordan Larson, manufacturing engineer at Federal-Mogul Powertrain. “By utilizing the built-in EtherCAT Master for motion and conditioned I/O, we have greatly reduced the wiring and debugging time of the automation machines that we build. With Industrial Controllers, we also have brought the cost per camera down tremendously compared to other cameras previously used for machine vision. Using NI’s Industrial Controllers, we have reduced the number of components inside our machines and have all our control software on one platform, which was something we were unable to do previously.”

• Industrial Controllers are part of a growing number of products from NI that support Time Sensitive Networking (TSN), the next evolution of the IEEE 802.1 Ethernet standard that delivers distributed time synchronization, low latency and convergence of time-critical and general networking traffic. In addition to using TSN for controller-to-controller communication, engineers can also integrate highly synchronized sensor measurements using the new TSN-enabled CompactDAQ Chassis released earlier this year. 

#IIoT. @niukie #Pauto 

FPGAs and high-performance data converters.

A new PXI FlexRIO architecture that integrates mezzanine I/O modules with Xilinx Kintex UltraScale FPGAs has been announced by National Instruments (NI). The first wave of products based on this new architecture includes two high-resolution PXI FlexRIO Digitizers, three dedicated PXI FlexRIO Coprocessor Modules and a module development kit that helps with custom front-end development.

The FlexRIO product line combines customizable I/O and user-programmable FPGAs into high-performance, reconfigurable instruments users can program with the LabVIEW FPGA Module. With Kintex UltraScale FPGAs, the new FlexRIO architecture offers more programmable resources than previous Kintex-7-based FlexRIO modules. In addition, the new mezzanine architecture fits both the I/O module and the FPGA back end within a single, integrated 3U PXI module. For high-speed communication with other modules in the chassis, these new FlexRIO modules feature PCI Express Gen 3 x8 connectivity for up to 7 GB/s of streaming bandwidth.

“FPGAs and high-performance data converters are essential technologies when pushing the boundaries of discovery and innovation, but implementing them in a custom design can be cumbersome,” said Steve Warntjes, NI vice president of R&D, modular instruments. “FlexRIO has consistently helped engineers and scientists bring ideas to fruition faster with an off-the-shelf solution that includes the latest FPGA and converter technology. The new FlexRIO architecture furthers this mission.”

The new FlexRIO modules take advantage of the highest-performance FPGA and A/D converter technology, which makes them ideal for applications that require advanced capabilities like remote sensing, signals intelligence, communications and particle physics. New modules include:

· Digitizer Modules – New PXI FlexRIO Digitizers deliver high-speed sampling rates and wide bandwidth without compromising dynamic range. The PXIe-5763 and PXIe-5764 provide 500 MS/s and 1 GS/s sampling rates, respectively. Both modules offer 16-bit resolution and up to 400 MHz of bandwidth on all four channels.
· Coprocessor Modules – Add real-time signal processing capabilities to a system with dedicated Kintex UltraScale PXI FlexRIO Coprocessor Modules. A chassis full of these modules delivers the highest density of computational resources per U of rack space of any NI system.
· Module Development Kit – Start with a FlexRIO FPGA back end programmable by LabVIEW and then design custom I/O modules to meet more unique application requirements.

FlexRIO instruments are an important part of the NI ecosystem that engineers can use to build smarter test and measurement systems. These systems benefit from more than 600 PXI products ranging from DC to mmWave and feature high-throughput data movement using PCI Express bus interfaces and sub-nanosecond synchronization with integrated timing and triggering. Supported by a vibrant ecosystem of partners, add-on IP and applications engineers, the NI platform helps dramatically lower the cost of test, reduce time to market and future-proof testers for tomorrow’s challenging requirements.

Read this white paper to learn more about how the new FlexRIO architecture helps engineers build smarter test and measurement systems.

@niukie #Pauto @NIglobal

Managing data.

The Data Management Software Suite has been announced by National Instruments (NI). This enterprise software solution offers a complete workflow to standardise measurement data across teams, mine that data for useful information, transform the data through automated analysis and deliver reports with valuable insight.

“The amount of data being acquired to test devices, monitor physical assets and analyze product designs continues to skyrocket,” said Dave Wilson, vice president of platform software at NI. “The challenge with the exponential growth in the amount of data being acquired is the establishment of a repeatable and automated process to extract valuable insights. Often inconsistencies and errors in the data produce erroneous results, which requires engineers to manually inspect and verify data before sending it to a manual or automated analysis process.”

The Data Management Software Suite aims to simplify this workflow by introducing new server-based software features and a new product, the Analysis Server. This new product helps engineers and scientists automate the search, standardization, analysis and reporting of large amounts of measurement data. The full suite is flexible enough to integrate with customers’ existing data formats and IT infrastructures, so any team with a Windows machine and a network can add powerful data management capabilities. The NI platform provides the ability to perform nanosecond analytics at the edge, read/write data for analysis and standardize metadata for automated analysis.

“Using the Data Management Software Suite, we’ve helped a major automotive manufacturer reduce the time it spends analyzing the data generated by one of its component tests from 10 hours to 7 minutes. This essentially reduces its testing cycle by one whole day,” said Barry Hutt, CEO of Viviota, an NI Alliance Partner specializing in data management.

With the release of the Analysis Server, NI’s server-based data management solution built on DIAdem and the DataFinder Server, the suite can be expanded to automated data processing. Now engineers can gain initial meaningful insights without any manual interaction while preserving the original measurement data for searching and further investigation. The Data Management Software Suite combines these highly interoperable software products into one enterprise solution that can be used to increase test data standardization and help reduce time to market by turning data into insights faster.

Supported by a vibrant ecosystem of partners, add-on IP and applications engineers, the Data Management Software Suite is part of NI’s software and hardware platform that helps dramatically lower the cost of test, reduce time to market and future-proof test systems for tomorrow’s challenging requirements. Visit their site to learn more about using this suite to tackle the Big Analog Data problem.

@NIglobal #PAuto @NIukie

Top trends to influence automation in 2018.

National Instruments (NI), has announced the release of NI Trend Watch 2018. The report examines the technological advances propelling our future faster than ever before along with some of the biggest challenges engineers face looking ahead to 2018.

“As we advance through the 21st century, our customers demand higher quality devices, faster test times, more reliable networking and almost instantaneous computing to keep their organizations moving forward,” said Shelley Gretlein, NI vice president of corporate marketing. “Not only is NI prepared to help customers keep pace by exploring the trends impacting our industry, we also provide actionable insights backed with an open, software-centric platform to accelerate the development of any customer-defined test, measurement or control system.”

NI Trend Watch 2018 explores the following topics:

• Machine Learning Puts Data to Work – Intelligent systems create and rely on data, but the ever-increasing quantity of data exacerbates the Big Analog Data™ challenge. Discover how machine learning addresses the problem head-on, so engineers can focus on finding and solving the next grand challenge. • 5G to Disrupt Test Processes – 5G innovation doesn’t stop at design. Test and measurement solutions will be key in the commercialization cycle, but 5G requires a different approach to test than previous wireless technologies. Find out what it’s going to take to make 5G a reality. • 3 Mandates of the IIoT – The proliferation of smart and connected “things” in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) provides tremendous opportunities for increased performance and lower costs, but managing these distributed systems is often an overlooked challenge. Explore the three necessities for successfully managing your “things.” • Effects of Electrification – The vehicle electrification trend goes deeper than a global shift from internal combustion and hybrid vehicles to fully electric powertrains. Consider implications beyond the increasingly complex vehicle itself, including new demands on supporting infrastructure. • Breaking Moore’s Law – The constant pace of innovation has tracked remarkably close to Moore’s law for decades, despite a few minor revisions and much talk of its death. But now, the more than 50-year-old observation is facing health challenges again. Find out what that means for the future of the semiconductor market. NI Trend Watch 2018

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A glimpse into the future.

National Instruments is hosting NIDays Conference and Exhibition, "the ultimate learning experience that unites the brightest minds in engineering and science." This year, NIDays London (GB) is scheduled for a new venue, Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher (GB), on Tuesday 28th November 2017.
At NIDays, scientists and engineers will learn about the latest technology to accelerate productivity for software defined systems in test, measurement and control, in a full day of interactive, technical and networking sessions from industry leaders and NI experts.

Hosted by National Instruments, NIDays is an international event ideal for engineers, scientists and academicians, supplying the tools and knowledge to develop applications faster and smarter. This year’s ‘Thought Leadership Keynotes’ aim to inspire, giving those in attendance a glimpse at the latest, cutting-edge innovations that demonstrate how engineers and scientists use NI technology to change and improve the world we live in. The morning keynote ‘Impacting Today’s Business’, demonstrates how the NI platform is accelerating innovation in applications ranging from transportation safety, wireless communication, space travel and the IIoT. In the afternoon, see how NI continues the LabVIEW legacy with the evolution of the world’s most productive and efficient engineering software, in the keynote ‘A Glimpse into The Future’.

Attendees can tailor the event to their specific industry, application or interest and can choose from a vast array of Targeted Application Area Tracks including IIoT, Test & Measurement and Big Data Management. Delegates can also gain valuable experience and get Hands-On using NI technologies including LabVIEW NXG, CompactRIO and CompactDAQ. In addition, LabVIEW users can start their certification journey by sitting the NI Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer Exam, the first step in the three-part LabVIEW certification process.

Members from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre will be discussing the latest trends in Industry 4.0 and how companies across all industry areas can take advantage of these trends. Saab Aeronautics will also present their innovative hardware-in-the-loop test system for their brand new Gripen E fighter jets. In conjunction with these amazing presentations, several other NI customers and partners will take to the stage with their engineering innovations, that will inspire and provide an insight into how NI is engineering a better life for us all.

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Second-Generation VST.

National Instruments have announced a baseband model of the second-generation Vector Signal Transceiver (VST). The PXIe-5820 module is the industry’s first baseband VST with 1 GHz of complex I/Q bandwidth and is designed to address the most challenging RF front-end module and transceiver test applications, such as envelope tracking, digital pre-distortion and 5G test.

“In 2016, NI disrupted the industry by introducing the RF model of our second-generation VST with 1 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth,” said Charles Schroeder, vice president of RF and wireless at NI. “We’re continuing the disruption with the baseband model of our second-generation VST. Engineers can use the baseband VST with LabVIEW system design software to address the evolving and changing needs of transceiver test applications. Engineers can take advantage of the software-designed architecture of NI’s VSTs to help accelerate the pace of design, reduce the cost of test and solve measurement problems previously unsolvable through traditional test approaches.”

The PXIe-5820 combines a wideband I/Q digitizer, wideband I/Q arbitrary waveform generator and high-performance user-programmable FPGA into a single 2-slot PXI Express module. With 1 GHz of complex I/Q bandwidth, the baseband VST suits a wide range of applications including baseband I/Q testing of wireless and cellular chipsets as well as envelope tracking of digitally pre-distorted waveforms for power amplifier, and generation and analysis of new wireless standards such as 5G, 802.11ax and LTE-Advanced Pro.

Product Features:

• 1 GHz of complex I/Q instantaneous bandwidth for generation and analysis
• Measurement accuracy to measure 802.11ax error vector magnitude (EVM) performance of -54 dB
• Baseband 2-channel differential I/Q with 4 Vpp differential input and 2 Vpp differential output swing
• FPGA-based measurement acceleration for measurements up to 10X faster and highly optimized measurement software
• Compact size and tight synchronization of baseband and RF VSTs allowing for 2x2, 4x4, 8x8 or higher multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) configurations in the PXI form factor
• Excellent noise floor and spurious free dynamic range
• User-programmable FPGA that engineers can customize to add application-specific functionality
• Ease of programming with consistent software experience between RF and baseband VSTs

“The baseband VST is a deliberate evolution of our original software-designed architecture,” said Ruan Lourens, chief architect of R&D, RF at NI. “We have managed to optimize in every possible domain, from thermal and electrical to digital signal processing, to successfully deliver 1 GHz complex I/Q bandwidth in a small form factor. The baseband VST can be tightly synchronized with the PXIe-5840 RF VST to sub-nanosecond accuracy, to offer a complete solution for RF and baseband differential I/Q testing of wireless chipsets.”

The baseband VST is a vital part of the NI platform and ecosystem that engineers can use to build smarter test systems. These test systems benefit from more than 600 PXI products ranging from DC to mmWave. They feature high-throughput data movement using PCI Express Gen 3 bus interfaces and sub-nanosecond synchronization with integrated timing and triggering. Users can take advantage of the productivity of the LabVIEW and TestStand software environments, along with a vibrant ecosystem of partners, add-on IP and applications engineers, to help dramatically lower the cost of test, reduce time to market and future-proof testers for tomorrow’s challenging requirements.

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System testing of advanced 3D chips wins award.

Imec has announced the successful development of a fully-automatic system for pre-bond testing of advanced 3D chips. Pre-bond testing is important to increase the yield of 3D stacked chips. The new system enables probing and hence testing of chips with large arrays of 40µm-pitch micro-bumps, on 300mm wafers. The relevance of this new tool is underlined by winning the 2017 National Instruments Engineering Impact Award at a ceremony in Austin (TX USA)

The test system as installed in imec’s Fab-2

As an emerging technology, 3D IC stacking still has many open options and technical challenges. One of these challenges is probing of the individual chips, before being stacked, to ensure a good yield of the 3D stacked ICs. The inter-chip connections of 3D stacked ICs are made by large arrays of fine-pitch micro-bumps which makes probing these bumps a challenge. Until today, the probing solution is to add dedicated pre-bond probe pads to the to-be-stacked dies, but this requires extra space and design effort and increases test time.

Imec and Cascade Microtech have now developed a fully automatic test cell that can provide test access by probing large arrays of fine-pitch micro-bumps. The system is based on a Cascade Microtech CM300 probe station and National Instruments PXI test instrumentation, complemented by in-house developed software for automatic test generation, data analysis, and visualization. The system allows testing of wafers up to 300mm diameter, including thinned wafers on tape frame with exposed through-silicon vias. After several years of intense collaboration between imec and Cascade Microtech, partly supported by the EU-funded FP7 SEA4KET project, good results were achieved with Cascade Microtech’s Pyramid Probe® prototype RBI probe cards on imec’s 300mm wafers with 40µm-pitch micro-bumped chips.

--> At the heart of the test system is this probe core with MEMS-based probe tips that contact the large arrays of fine-pitch micro-bumps.  “Imec provided us with unique early insights into the test requirements for 3D ICs, which drove the development of this system,” said Jörg Kiesewetter, director of engineering at Cascade Microtech Dresden (D). “Also the availability of imec’s dedicated micro-bump test wafers has helped us to fine-tune both the probe station and the probe cards for this application.”

“At imec, we are using the system now on a routine basis to test our 40µm-pitch micro-bumped wafers,” stated Erik Jan Marinissen, principal scientist at imec. “As everything in the semiconductor realm, also micro-bumps are subject to downscaling. Hence, with Cascade, we have started experiments to also probe our 20µm-pitch micro-bump arrays, and those look promising.”

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Accelerating design and build of automated test systems.

National Instruments have announced new ATE Core Configurations which deliver core mechanical, power and safety infrastructure to help users accelerate the design and build of automated test systems in industries ranging from semiconductor and consumer electronics to aerospace and automotive.

ATE Core Configurations help simplify the design, procurement, assembly, and deployment of smarter test systems at a lower cost and shorter time to market by empowering test organizations with a platform for standardization. These 19-in., rack-based configurations are available in various rack-unit heights, and offer scalable power profiles to match the needs of nearly any application and geography. Test organizations can benefit from highly integrated safety features such as thermal shutoff, emergency power off (EPO), optional uninterruptible power supplies and IEC 61010 certification.

Key benefits include:

• Highly customizable – Choose what is included in the system, and where within the rack, including PXI instrumentation, signal conditioning, kW power supplies, cooling and more

• Streamlined procurement – Simplify bill of materials management with consolidated part numbers and fewer vendor transactions

• Readily deployable – Benefit from IEC 61010 certified systems which are backed by more than 1,500 NI sales, system and support engineers worldwide

• Expansive ecosystem – Work directly with NI Alliance Partners to specify a turn-key system, including mass interconnect and fixturing, test software development, system maintenance, lifecycle support and more

“Building a test system is a difficult job – one that even the best organizations spend many months accomplishing purely because of the number of components, suppliers and interoperability challenges present,” said Luke Schreier, director of automated test product marketing at NI. “The new ATE Core Configurations can help users dramatically simplify the purchasing process for a common set of requirements and reduce the time and cost of building a system. And when you ultimately want a turn-key system, they form a great bridge to the integration expertise of our Alliance Partner Network.”

ATE Core Configurations also benefit from NI’s high-performance PXI instrumentation and extensive test software portfolio. This includes more than 600 PXI instruments ranging from DC to mmWave featuring high-throughput data movement using PCI Express Gen 3 bus interfaces and sub-nanosecond synchronization with integrated timing and triggering. ATE Core Configurations can also include TestStand test management software and LabVIEW code module development software, extensive API and example program support for PXI instruments, and more than 13,000 instrument drivers for third-party box instruments.

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Multislot Ethernet chasses.

National Instruments (NI) have announced the release of two new multislot Ethernet chassis at their annual NI Week in Austin (TX USA) . The cDAQ-9185 and cDAQ-9189 introduce new time-based synchronization built on the latest Ethernet standards, furthering NI’s efforts in Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) and rugged CompactDAQ hardware for distributed measurements.

The nature of physical systems test is rapidly changing as measurement systems migrate from the control room to closer to the device under test. While this shortens installation time, reduces the cost of sensor wiring and improves measurement accuracy, it creates challenges with synchronization and systems management, especially using today’s industrial networking technologies. NI is actively working to help define TSN, the next evolution of the IEEE 802.1 Ethernet standard, to deliver distributed time synchronization, low latency and convergence of time critical and general networking traffic. The cDAQ-9185 and cDAQ-9189 provide tight time synchronization with TSN to simplify and improve scalability of synchronized, distributed systems.

Features and benefits include:
• Precise synchronized timing over the network, which eliminates the need for lengthy, physical timing cables and ensures tightly synchronized measurements for accurate analysis.
• Simple daisy chaining through an integrated network switch for quick setup and expansion in distributed applications.
• Reliable operation in harsh environments with -40° to 70° C operating temperature range, shock resistance up to 50 g and vibration resistance up to 5 g.
• Software abstraction through the NI-DAQmx driver that automatically synchronizes multiple chassis for simple programming.

“These new chassis automatically synchronize measurement data using network-based time. This allows accurate synchronization over long distances, which greatly simplifies customer setup and systems management of high-channel-count and distributed systems,” said Todd Walter, chief marketing manager of the DAQ and embedded lead user team at NI. “This new, innovative method of synchronization combined with the signal processing libraries in LabVIEW system design software helps engineers quickly collect and analyze results, which drives faster test completion and higher efficiency.”

For more than a decade, engineers have used CompactDAQ with LabVIEW to quickly customize DAQ systems to meet their application needs. With NI’s investment in the latest technologies for synchronization and communication, the new CompactDAQ chassis are equipped to meet the current and emerging needs of distributed test and measurement applications, delivering high-performance, rugged DAQ systems that can acquire data from highly distributed sensors.

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