This short video discusses the feature set your cabling needs to get PDN impedance measurements correct. A coaxial instrument cable must do five things well: Accurately get the signal from the source to the instrument without distortion Provide the lowest possible cable shield resistance to minimize ground loop errors Maximize the shield attenuation to limit noise Be ultra-flexible so as not to rip the capacitors off the board Support environmental qualification testing Along

Published on June 5, 2020 by Ken Coffman Field Applications Engineer at Vicor Corporation Ken Coffman: Steve, first off, let’s discuss your latest book, Power Integrity using ADS. ADS is Keysight’s Advanced Design System. Literally, you could use any simulator you like. Can engineers who don’t use ADS get value from this book? Steve Sandler: Certainly! The book provides simulation details for ADS and includes the ADS Workspaces, but the procedures and workflow apply to many o

From OMICRON Lab: “The Impedance of real-life components is often non-linear, depending on the applied DC bias voltage or current. In this webinar, we show techniques on how to measure capacitors under DC bias voltage. In addition, Steve Sandler from Picotest will present how to precisely measure inductors with DC bias currents up to 125 A.” #j2102b #groundloop #design #inductor #spicemodelling #J2113A #2portshunt #capacitors #ripplemeasurements #webinar #j2121a #j2131a #3por

“The very first project Steve Sandler, Managing Director of Picotest, worked on, was the space shuttle—and this was just the beginning of his fascinating career in power electronics! Steve is an expert in power integrity solutions, measurement products, services, and training. Join us as he shares his world-renowned expertise on test measurement of signal & power integrity, and EMI, and elaborates on his vision for the future of PCB Design. Steve also shares some of his rich

Steve Sandler (Managing Director at Picotest) reveals in this presentation many of the noise sources that impact sensitive circuits (such as LNA’s, clocks and PLL’s), how to measure them and how to easily optimize their performance without either under/over-designing the design solution. Captured during DgCon conference in May 2019 #j2102b #noisegenerator #powerdistributionnetwork #groundloop #noise #noisesensitivecircuit #2portshunt #phasenoise #voltagenoise #picotest #video

By Steve Sandler | March 12, 2020 “I recently designed an ultra-high speed, low-impedance pulse generator (Figure 1). I wanted it for evaluating oscilloscope probe performance [1], [2] and for determining the feasibility of an in-socket load for ASIC emulation. The obvious choice, due to size and desired performance, was an eGaN FET. One of the devices I used is an EPC2037, 0.9 mm device. As it turns out, the hard part wasn’t designing the pulser, but determining just how fas

When Picotest announced the release of a new coaxial cable, designed specifically for power distribution network (PDN) applications this past month, the questions started coming almost immediately. What’s so special about the cable, why would a company like Picotest, which specialized is power systems test, develop their own cables and can’t I use any 50 Ohm coaxial cable? I think the most efficient way to respond to the questions is via a blog. So, if you are one that is

Presented By: Steve Sandler, Founder and CEO of Picotest Duration: 54 minutes (available on demand) Sponsored by: Rohde & Schwarz Register now to watch on demand Abstract: Modern instruments are available to perform almost any measurement with extreme accuracy and resolution. Despite this, there has been a trend to include more capabilities within the most common of benchtop instruments, the oscilloscope. In past years, oscilloscopes have added basic additional features, su

Presented by:  Steve Sandler, CEO of Picotest Andreas Ibl, Product Manager Oscilloscopes at Rohde & Schwarz Andrea D’Aquino, Product Manager Network Analysis at Rohde & Schwarz Sponsored by:  Rohde & Schwarz Duration: 1 hour (available on demand) Register Now to watch on demand Abstract: We will be discussing power integrity issues, root causes, and countermeasures in sensitive electronic designs. Demonstrating best design & test practices and solutions we will be supporti

This application note series by Steve Sandler explores the measurement of the dynamic resistance of an LED and how to create a usable SPICE model from the data. Today, LEDs dominate the lighting industry, replacing incandescent, CFL, and halogen bulbs. They are much more efficient at saving power, and as semiconductor devices, they should be much more reliable. Most LEDs are powered by constant current drivers in order to maintain uniform lighting in parallel strings with mat

Title:  Best Practices for Interpreting Power Integrity Measurements Duration:  1 hour, 1 minute (Available On Demand) Presented By:  Steve Sandler, Founder of Picotest Sponsored by:  Tektronix Abstract: Modern electronics, from automotive to Internet of things, and everything in between, present many power integrity challenges. The performance of the high-speed circuits, including reference clocks, LNAs and transceivers, is dependent on power supply noise. This webinar provi

Title: Characterizing the VRM Duration: 30 minutes (Available On Demand) Presented by: Steve Sandler, Founder, Picotest Abstract: A high fidelity VRM model is required to properly assess system performance, and this includes power integrity (PI). This has always been my position and I have presented papers, videos and lectures on the topic. Most recently I wrote an article, published in the July 2019 Signal Integrity Journal, illustrating the interactions between the VRM and

Read the entire article here. #powerdistributionnetwork #noise #powerintegrity #ads #psrr #powersupply #inputimpedance #powerdeliverynetwork #voltagenoise #dcdcconverter #picotest #UltraLowNoiseVoltageRegulators #converter #bodeplots #controlloop #negativeinputresistance #targetimpedance

In this application note, we will show you the basic principles for making this stability measurement and how to use these instruments to make the measurement.” Read the entire app note here. #phasemargin #gainmargin #oscilloscopes #j2100aj2101a #powerintegrity #siglent #injection #frequencyresponseanalyzers #feedbackamplifier #powersupply #VNA #picotest #stability #bodeplots #controlloop

Oscilloscope users can also calibrate their passive oscilloscope probes, though the process is much less sophisticated and for lack of a better term, wrong.  The calibration process also generally can’t include the “fixture.” This short article shows you what to measure and a method to accurately measure the response of the probe.  In addition to the probe, there are other errors that need to be removed.  Most importantly, this article will show you how to accurately measure

Measuring the negative resistance of a DC-DC converter’s input requires introducing a perturbation of the input voltage while measuring the input voltage and the input current. Using a frequency response analyzer (FRA) or vector network analyzer (VNA), the modulated voltage divided by the resulting modulated current provides a direct measurement of input impedance. The Picotest J2121A line injector simplifies this measurement by integrating a modulator and a hall current moni

Click here to watch the video. #vrm #flatimpedance #noise #powerintegrity #jitter #noisesensitivecircuit #EDICON #presentations #powersupply #phasenoise #picotest #videos #power #signalintegrity #UltraLowNoiseVoltageRegulators

Click here to read the entire article. #powerdistributionnetwork #groundloop #powerintegrity #J2113A #2portshunt #e5061b #j2102a #impedancemeasurement #VNA #picotest #pdn #impedance

Click here to read the entire article. #noise #Crosstalk #powerintegrity #noisesensitivecircuit #signalanalyzers #decoupling #vrts3 #capacitors #psrr #powersupply #impedancemeasurement #voltagenoise #j2111a #picotest #j2180a #power #impedance #regulator #clockjitter #controlloop