Test Equipment

At Thomas Instrumentation, we understand the value of in-depth testing. Many of our customers’ projects require our designs to make extremely precise measurements and reliably communicate these results in noisy factory environments. In order to provide the best design, we always perform an in-house stress test under worst case conditions. Some of the equipment we utilize to perform these tests are:

Schaffner ESD Simulator

This device generates both airgap and contact electrostatic discharges between 2kV and 21kV. The test is performed to identify any ESD immunity failures in a design. One of the most predominant reasons for electronic failure is a lack of EMC/EMI immunity in a system’s design. Having the capability to perform this test in-house provides our customers with an added level of confidence in their product’s reliability and an advantage going into any required electrical product safety NRTL/MET Lab testing and certification.

Schaffner ProfLine Burst Generator

This device generates different forms of electromagnetic interference, such as Electrical Fast Transient pulses, on a device’s power line. Doing this will quickly show any immunity failures in the design under test. It’s essentially testing for common causes of in-field electronics failures such as inconsistent or faulty power. Having the capability to perform this test in-house provides our customers with extra confidence in their product’s reliability. It also gives them an advantage going into any required electrical product safety tests such as NRTL/MET Lab testing and certification.

Spectrum Analyzer

The sub-gigahertz range device operates between 0.15 MHz and 1050 MHz with a resolution of 0.1 MHz. Its amplitude range is from -100dBm to +13dBm and it has an output power range of +1dBm to -50dBm. It allows us to do some simple analysis of signals in that range and can act as a simple receiver for electromagnetic interference for customers who need to pass EMI/EMC testing. We also have a few analyzers for inspecting signals in the 2.4 GHz frequency range.

Mixed Signal Oscilloscopes

The main oscilloscopes used in the engineering, technical, and software departments is the MS02014. It has a 1 GS/s sample rate, 4 analog channels, 16 digital channels, and over 125 different trigger combinations for capturing signal anomalies. It allows us to easily search, mark, and navigate long record lengths to identify anomalous patterns. It has parallel bus triggering and analysis features to quickly debug any parallel bus issues. It also has serial triggering and analysis for common serial busses such as I2C, SPI, CAN, LIN, and RS-232/422/485/UART. Having this scope allows us to diagnose and identify issues ranging from simple analog signals to complex communication protocols.

Assorted Electronics Diagnostic Equipment

Over the past 48 years, Thomas Instrumentation has added a lot of engineering and diagnostic equipment. The standard equipment we have are multimeters, function generators, frequency counter/timers, logic analyzers, thermocouple calibrators, and precision voltage sources/power supplies. We use all of these and more to both verify new designs and diagnose customer problems. We’re always here to help no matter the situation.

Test Equipment