A signal generator is one of a class of electronic devices that generates electronic signals with set properties of amplitude, frequency, and wave shape. These generated signals are used as a stimulus for electronic measurements, typically used in designing, testing, troubleshooting, and repairing electronic or electroacoustic devices, though it often has artistic uses as well.
Electronic test equipment is used to create signals and capture responses from electronic devices under test (DUTs). In this way, the proper operation of the DUT can be proven or faults in the device can be traced. Use of electronic test equipment is essential to any serious work on electronics systems.
A spectrum analyzer measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full frequency range of the instrument. The primary use is to measure the power of the spectrum of known and unknown signals. The input signal that most common spectrum analyzers measure is electrical; however, spectral compositions of other signals, such as acoustic pressure waves and optical light waves, can be considered through the use of an appropriate transducer. Spectrum analyzers for other types of signals also exist, such as optical spectrum analyzers which use direct optical techniques such as a monochromator to make measurements.
Plasma diagnostics are a pool of methods, instruments, and experimental techniques used to measure properties of a plasma, such as plasma components' density, distribution function over energy (temperature), their spatial profiles and dynamics, which enable to derive plasma parameters.
Yokogawa Electric Corporation is a Japanese multinational electrical engineering and software company, with businesses based on its measurement, control, and information technologies.
In physics, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is a spectroscopic technique in which the properties of matter are probed with short pulses of terahertz radiation. The generation and detection scheme is sensitive to the sample's effect on both the amplitude and the phase of the terahertz radiation. By measuring in the time-domain, the technique can provide more information than conventional Fourier-transform spectroscopy, which is only sensitive to the amplitude.
Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch is a German physicist. He received one fourth of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for "contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique", sharing the prize with John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber.
A network analyzer is an instrument that measures the network parameters of electrical networks. Today, network analyzers commonly measure s–parameters because reflection and transmission of electrical networks are easy to measure at high frequencies, but there are other network parameter sets such as y-parameters, z-parameters, and h-parameters. Network analyzers are often used to characterize two-port networks such as amplifiers and filters, but they can be used on networks with an arbitrary number of ports.
SpectraSensors, Inc. is a manufacturer of optical-based gas sensors for the industrial process, environmental monitoring and clean technology markets. The company's sensors measure the absorption of laser light at specific wavelengths to detect carbon dioxide and water vapor in industrial process control and environmental monitoring applications. Such applications include non-contact measurement of moisture, carbon dioxide, and other corrosives in the energy industry, petrochemical industry, arsenic and other impurities in drinking water (Water Quality), and airborne water vapor and other atmospheric measurements from commercial aircraft for the U.S. and International Weather Services (Atmospheric). Clean tech applications include identifying and harvesting methane (CH4) as a clean energy source, as well as mounting sensors on commercial airliners to enable real-time monitoring of weather conditions to avoid commercial flight delays totaling $1 billion per year in wasted time and fuel.
Distributed temperature sensing systems (DTS) are optoelectronic devices which measure temperatures by means of optical fibres functioning as linear sensors. Temperatures are recorded along the optical sensor cable, thus not at points, but as a continuous profile. A high accuracy of temperature determination is achieved over great distances. Typically the DTS systems can locate the temperature to a spatial resolution of 1 m with accuracy to within ±1°C at a resolution of 0.01°C. Measurement distances of greater than 30 km can be monitored and some specialised systems can provide even tighter spatial resolutions.
Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation, (BNC), of San Rafael, California, United States, is an electronics company whose products range from pulse generators and digital delay generators to specialized handheld instruments and portal monitors capable of radiation detection and isotope identification.
Brüel & Kjær is a Danish multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Nærum, near Copenhagen. It is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of sound and vibration measurement equipment, systems and solutions. Brüel & Kjær is a subsidiary of Spectris.
Keithley Instruments is a measurement and instrument company headquartered in Solon, Ohio, that develops, manufactures, markets, and sells data acquisition products, as well as complete systems for high-volume production and assembly testing.
An Audio Analyzer is a test and measurement instrument used to objectively quantify the audio performance of electronic and electro-acoustical devices. Audio quality metrics cover a wide variety of parameters, including level, gain, noise, harmonic and intermodulation distortion, frequency response, relative phase of signals, interchannel crosstalk, and more. In addition, many manufacturers have requirements for behavior and connectivity of audio devices that require specific tests and confirmations.
Zurich Instruments Ltd. is a privately owned company developing and selling advanced test and measurement instruments equipped with software for dynamic signal analysis. The company is based in Technopark, Zurich, Switzerland, and has international subsidiaries operating in Shanghai and Boston. Its focus is on academic and industrial research and development organizations.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to electronics:
From 1929 to the late 1960s, large alternating current power systems were modelled and studied on AC network analyzers or transient network analyzers. These special-purpose analog computers were an outgrowth of the DC calculating boards used in the very earliest power system analysis. By the middle of the 1950s, fifty network analyzers were in operation. AC network analyzers were much used for power flow studies, short circuit calculations, and system stability studies, but were ultimately replaced by numerical solutions running on digital computers. While the analyzers could provide real-time simulation of events, with no concerns about numeric stability of algorithms, the analyzers were costly, inflexible, and limited in the number of buses and lines that could be simulated. Eventually powerful digital computers replaced analog network analyzers for practical calculations, but analog physical models for studying electrical transients are still in use.
The scanning laser vibrometer or scanning laser Doppler vibrometer, was first developed by the British loudspeaker company, Celestion, around 1979, further developed in the 1980s, and commercially introduced by Ometron, Ltd around 1986. It is an instrument for rapid non-contact measurement and imaging of vibration.
Lightwave Electronics Corporation was a developer and manufacturer of diode-pumped solid-state lasers, and was a significant contributor to the creation and maturation of this technology. Lightwave Electronics was a technology-focused company, with diverse markets, including science and micromachining. Inventors employed by Lightwave Electronics received 51 US patents, and Lightwave Electronics products were referenced by non-affiliated inventors in 91 US patents.
Jean-Paul Richard is a Canadian physicist, academic and researcher. He is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Maryland.
