New Computer Controlled High Resolution Programmable Validation System for Research in Electronics Hardware

Abstract

Conventional methods for validation of electronics hardware research are susceptible to manual measurement errors, and give limited accuracy of 8 to 10 bits. These methods are also time consuming and do not ensure accuracy in validation of performance parameters. Hence, a new computer controlled high resolution programmable hardware research validation system has been proposed here for testing the electronics hardware systems. The test signals with high resolution (16 bit) and high accuracy are generated using multiplying digital to analog converter (MDAC) with high reference bandwidth. The output signals are measured with the same resolution and accuracy using 16 bit analog to digital converter (ADC). The output data is transferred to the PC through USB interface for further analysis using Teensy 3.6 card. The signals can be generated in bandwidth of 0-10MHz in step size which can be as small as 10μV and as large as 600mv which is user programmable. This proposed system has been designed, constructed and tested. The experimental results of this system have been reported here which ascertain the performance of the system. With this system, manual errors in measurement are avoided and testing time is significantly reduced. The reported system is low cost economic solution for validating the electronic research work in academic institutes.