TSP #254 – X-Ray Florescence CMI900 Oxford Instruments Teardown, Repair & Experiments (Part 1)

December 21, 2024 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a look at an X-Ray florescence machine. The CMI900 Oxford Instruments unit is not only capable of elemental analysis and identification, it can also measure the thickness of various coatings which is particularly interesting for electronics.

Unfortunately the already-non-functional unit has been further damaged in transit due to poor packaging. In this first video we dive into the repair of the unit and accompanying PC. The unit has several problems both mechanical & electrical and the damage to the PC hosting the unique interface software is also extensive. The teardown and repair procedures are covered in this video.

Stay tuned for the next episode where Shahriar will cover the theory of operation as well as range of measurement experiments.

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TNP #53 – Ω-Source Electronically Controlled Resistance Decade Box Repair, Teardown & Experiments

November 23, 2024 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a look at an interesting electrically controlled resistance decade box. The unit uses a large grid of latching relays to synthesize a wide range of resistance values from fixed surface mount resistors.
The unit has a faulty LCD screen which can be easily replaced. The repaired unit is calibrated using a Keithley 2002 8.5-Digit multimeter and meets is specifications. The resistance box is combined with an adjustable voltage regulator to realize a tunable voltage source with ease.

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TSP #253 – Keysight 256GS/s, 80GHz Bandwidth M8199B 2-Channel AWG Overview, Teardown & Experiments

November 10, 2024 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a look at another world’s first instrument: Keysight M8199B 256 GSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator. With over 80GHz of analog bandwidth, this high performance ARB is intended for design development at 160GBaud and above:

https://www.keysight.com/zz/en/product/M8199B/m8199b-256-gsa-s-arbitrary-waveform-generator.html

This video is organized as follows:

00:00 – Introductions
00:54 – ARB comparison, performance metrics, key parameters
03:59 – DAC design, chip layout, system level considerations, overall instrument architecture
14:42 – M8199B interfaces, detailed teardown, sub-block overview, output module analysis
30:14 – Demonstration setup, M8199B, DCA-X, 120GHz remote sampling use-case
33:29 – Software interfaces, I/Q tools, signal generation & calibration
36:29 – DCA-X eye-diagram captures, 64GBaud to 200GBaud, NRZ, PAM4, PAM8
44:09 – Keysight captured eye diagram & ultimate system performance
45:50 – Concluding remarks

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TSP #252 – Mini-Circuits 37dBm 1GHz Power Amplifier Repair, Teardown & RF Characterization Tutorial

October 27, 2024 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a look at benchtop power amplifier unit from Mini-Circuits. The amplifier operates from 0.5 – 1000MHz and can provide over 4W of saturated output power. The amplifier is not functional and provides no gain or output power.
The teardown reveals the “hand-made” nature of the multi-stage RF amplifier inside. Although the internal power supply is functional, none of the five internal RF stages have any supply voltage. The problem is traced to a broken small fuse soldered to the main PCB. A new fuse holder is installed.
The amplifier is extensively characterized for frequency response, Psat, P1dB, OIP3, NF as well as efficiency. Details of measurements techniques for each parameter is discussed in details.

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TSP #251 – Agilent 50GHz PSA (E4448A) Spectrum Analyzer Teardown, Repair & Experiments (Part 1)

October 19, 2024 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a look at the faulty Agilent 50GHz spectrum analyzer which does not power on. After tracing the issue and restoring the bootting sequence, it is clear that the instrument has several other issues. The attenuator step calibration failure is addressed which clears all startup errors. However, the instrument still does not measure some frequency bands correctly which points to a failure in the band-selection & mixer assembly. We will have to return to this instrument again in Part 2!

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