Author Archives: Andi

pluripotent stem cells give this Chip a Living Beating Heart

In 2010, Shinya Yamanaka, the winner of the Kyoto Prize, had discovered pluripotent stem cells. At the University of Berkeley, bioengineers used these stem cells to create living, beating hearts on-a-chip. Their aim is to reproduce organs of the human body on-a-chip and then interconnect them with channels carrying micro-fluidics, ultimately creating a complete human being on-a-wafer.

According to Professor Kevin Healy, bioengineers have mastered the art of deriving almost any type of human tissue for skin stem cells. Yamanaka was the discoverer of this process. Healy wants to use this in drug screening applications, since that can be done without actually testing on animals. Ultimately, by generating organs-on-a-chip using the stem cells of the patient would be beneficial as this could help with study of genetic diseases as well.

At present, the heart on-a-chip beats each time it pumps blood through micro-fluidic veins within its polymer and silicone chamber. By connecting the various organs via micro-fluidic channels that carry natural biological fluids and blood between them, bioengineers plan to study the interaction of drugs among the various organs.

For example, by solving a heart problem with a drug, the liver might start retaining toxins. It would be much better to find this out beforehand prior to administering the drug to the patient.

The UC Berkeley developed heart-on-a-chip uses human heart tissues that have been derived from adult stem cells. Researchers hope someday to replace the animal models currently used for drug safety testing. However, Professor Healy clarified that creating living robots by the process was not their mission. Their funding comes from the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening Initiative of the National Institute of Health. This being an interagency collaboration aimed specifically at developing 3D human tissue chips solely for drug screening.

Nonetheless, this technology of creating organs-on-a-chip and interconnecting them via micro-fluidic channels, might someday lay the foundation for making robot-like creatures. For example, a single 4-inch wafer can house about 24 artificial heart chips.

However, making robot-like creatures requires sensors and actuators. Although sensors are easier, actuators pose more problems. According to Professor Healy, MIT is working on developing artificial muscles to serve as actuators.

Professor Healy along with his colleagues has created an inch-long artificial heart, which is housed in silicone, and contains real cardiac muscle cells. Once the heart cells are inserted within the device, it takes about 24 hours for the cells to begin spontaneously beating at the normal rate of 55-80 times per minute. Simultaneously, the heart cells pump blood through the micro-fluidics channels. Administering drugs known to slowdown or speed up the heart’s frequency, causes the artificial heart to respond normally.

Currently, the micro-fluidics channels carry only nutrients. However, the same channels might someday be used to carry away waste products as well. Professor Healy’s lab has managed to keep the cells viable over several weeks. They plan to put hundreds of organs-on-a-chip and spread them across a wafer, interconnecting them all with micro-fluidics channels carrying blood and other essential bodily fluids. Very soon, using animals for drug screening would end.

Raspberry Pi Alternatives

f you have been using single board computers such as the RBPi or Raspberry Pi and Arduino, you would have certainly found them great as do-it-yourself boards for hacking and for setting up your own design. However, using these boards can bring up a natural curiosity to look at other alternate hacker boards similar in size and functionality to the RBPi.

Listed here are some boards comparable in prices to that of the RBPi, and with community support. They are good for transitioning to low-cost commercial volume manufacturing, while being compatible and easy-to-use.

According to the director of ecosystem and marketing program of Freescale, Steve Nelson, one should look for five important features while selecting an SBC: Simplicity in installation and during operation; Staying power or popularity with users; Stability against regular rebooting or updating; Security of design; and Standards of compatibility irrespective of the manufacturer.

Udoo: Although more expensive compared to RBPi, Udoo offers a unique experience of Linux and Arduino SBC. It runs on an ARM i .MX6 processor from Freescale, has 1GB DDR3 RAM and offers 76 fully available GPIO. Apart from this, it has a Wi-Fi module, one Ethernet RJ45, 3D GPUs for graphics, HDMI and LVDS. Other features include a pair of mini USB and mini OTG, one analog audio and microphone socket and a camera connection. Udoo works on 12V from an external power supply and the board has an external battery connector.

Wandboard: With 0.5GB to 2GB DDR3 RAM, Wandboard is more expensive compared to RBPi and is a unique Arduino and Linux SBC. It sports an HDMI interface, a camera interface, a micro-SD slot, an expansion header, serial port, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 802.11n, SATA and Gigabit LAN. This board is used in small autonomous Sumo-robots and a cluster with a custom PCI-Express carrier board adapter.

WaRP: Targeted at wearable designs, this not-yet-released Freescale supported board runs on an i.MX 6SoloLite processor based on the Cortex-A9 architecture and Android 4.3 OS. With an E-ink display and wireless charging option, this tiny board has MCU for sensor aggregation, orientation and pedometric functions. Communication interfaces include a Bluetooth wireless module, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and sports multi-chip packaging with LP-DDR2 and eMMC memories.

RIoTboard: This board also runs on the Freescale I.MX 6Solo processor based on the ARM Cortex A9 architecture. It offers very high performance video processing with HD- and SD-level video decoders and SD-level encoders. The 2D and 3D graphics accelerator are based on OpenGL ES 2.0 with shader. The Freescale Kinetics MCU is an integrated power management chip with 1GByte of 32-bit wide DDR3 running at 800MHz. The board uses 4GB of EMMC Flash and offers support for GNU/Linux and Android along with enhanced expansion capabilities.

Freedom: With ARM Cortex Core and a full tool suite, the Freedom board has up to 256KB of Flash, USB, an LCD Controller, a capacitive touch sensor, a magnetometer, a 3-axis accelerometer, a visible light sensor and a 4-digit 4×8 segment LCD.

Teensy 3.1: This is an extremely tiny board of 1.4×0.7 inches, weighing 3 grams. The ARM Cortex M4 MCU runs at 72 MHz with 256K Flash memory and 64K RAM. It is cheaper than the RBPi.

LED Light Guides Equal OLED Performance

The visual impact of OLED panels is hard to resist. Their luminosity is seductively stylish and sleek. Fashion-forward lighting designers prefer the eerily-even silky glow of the OLEDs, even though these are more expensive, have a short lifetime and can be damaged more easily than other light emitting panels. Now GLT or Global Lighting Technologies, with their edge-lit LED-based light guide technology, is about to turn the tables on OLEDs.

The latest product from GLT, a 4×4 inch LED-based light guide, demonstrates this technology specifically. Compared to an OLED panel, the GLT light guide has better durability, higher efficiency, longer life and is cheaper as well.

Applications that would normally use an OLED panel, can easily use the LED-based 4×4 inch square GLT light guide as a more durable and affordable solution. GLT has designed these light guides for use in general lighting applications and they offer diffused light output very similar to that from OLEDs, but at a much lower cost.

Offering enhanced light extraction, the light guide is very thin – only 3.5 mm. The panel itself measures only 2 mm, considerably thinner than products GLT made earlier. When in use, industry standard LEDs will typically light it up from the edges, with only a small frame concealing the LEDs. The current product gives out 250 lumens when fully powered, while the efficiency per watt is over 115 lumens.

GLT produces several types of molded light guides. All the products, including the new 4×4 backlights, are made using an efficient light extraction technology. A high-precision micro-molding process impresses optical features within the light guide. By arranging the features to provide a unique transition area, light spreads uniformly and precisely over each point across the panel. GLT has several standard patterns that they mold into the light guides. They can customize each pattern and meet any application virtually.

GLT develops their light guides in very thin packages and designs mechanical holding features into the backlights. That allows the host application to carry the entire display assembly and if that is not possible, use chip-on-flex or chip-on-glass type of assembly. That helps to reduce the parts count and material and assembly costs.

According to GTL, their light extraction technology delivers better optical performance than that offered by V-groove or stamped, chemical or laser etching and printing processes. Additionally, their process is more repeatable. After having demonstrated their light diffusion technology for a few years, GTL has now incorporated it into some of its high-end lighting products.

With their light diffusion technology, GLT offers a large variety of design options to the luminaire designers. Some of these designs can already be seen in the round 12-inch diameter pendant light. This clever design achieves results remarkably like an OLED. It uses a light guide incorporating LEDs along its inner circumference and they emit light in multiple directions.

Panasonic uses light guides from GLT in commercially available fixtures meant for mounting on ceilings. In the fixture, multiple light guides create discrete distribution patterns. These include spot lighting, downward flood lighting and upward ambient lighting within the room.

Christmas tree Lights with the Raspberry Pi

Although Christmas is still a good four months away, you can always prepare for it in advance. The project uses a tiny single board computer known as the RBPi or Raspberry Pi, but you will need some time to collect other material for the project. You will also need time to iron out software bugs, especially if you are a newcomer to the RBPi and Python programming. Additionally, although the project is meant for Christmas, you can as well use it for decorating any other occasion.

The RBPi in the project drives eight AC outlets connected to sets of light. An RGB LED star adds a dynamic range to the light show with its 25-step programming mode. Another advantage the RBPi offers is its audio out can drive the lights in time with music. With a Wi-Fi connection, you can work on the software from a remote location.

The basic ingredients you require for this project are: an RBPi, any model; an SD card containing the Occidentalis operating system; a USB Wi-Fi adapter; and an eight-channel 5V SSR Module Board. You may also use electro-mechanical relays in place of SSRs, but they will produce noticeably audible clicking sounds when switching, while SSRs are noiseless. If you use the SainSmart SSR module board, each of the eight SSRs is rated up to 2A, which will adequately power a string of lights.

Apart from the basic ingredients, you will also require a bunch of extra items: some jumper wires, JST SM Plug and receptacles; four 8ft pieces of wire; eight extension cords, two power distribution blocks; a power strip; suitable enclosure; and speakers. You will also need a few power supplies: for driving the RBPi and the LEDs – 5V, 3A or greater; and for driving the SSR module – 5V, 1A or greater.

For the star, you can use 12mm or suitable RGB LED strands. With the Adafruit WS2801 chip, the RBPi only has to pulse the LED strand once rather than pulse it continuously to keep the LEDs lit up.

It is advisable to test the RBPi and associated components before connecting the wiring. Do this before setting up everything within the enclosure and you have the advantage of easy troubleshooting. Connect the RBPi to a monitor and keyboard, so you can set the system configuration to start software development.

As the default RBPi installation does not have the necessary libraries for driving the WS2801 LEDs, it is necessary to use the Occidentalis operating system from Adafruit. Follow the steps outlined here for configuring the RBPi to get it working as required. Use GPIO 0-7 on the RBPi for driving the SSR module.

As the RBPi drives the GPIO output high, the SSR connected to that pin switches on. This allows the LED associated with the SSR to light up. Write a simple test program to cycle through all the GPIO pins, setting them high for two seconds each.
After testing for proper functioning, connect the lights to respective SSRs through extension cords, using power distribution blocks to keep the wiring neat. Use cheap night-lights to test the animation program first, since this will reduce your eyestrain.

Helping Encapsulated Modules Keep Their Cool

When you encapsulate an active module, you actually cut off air from circulating and removing heat from around the components by the normal process of convection. That forces heat build-up within the active components, including some passive components as well, leading to possible premature failures. Intersil has now mastered the technology of effectively removing heat away from fully-encapsulated modules. Using their unique thermal design, Intersil is able to design very compact encapsulated modules handling up to 50A.

For example, the ISL8240 from Intersil is a 100W analog module, a step-down power supply with single 40A and dual 20A output in the same design. You can parallel up to six of these tiny modules to get a whopping 240A output. Applications involve LTE base stations and data center servers with design architectures built using several FPGAs, ASICs and microprocessors. Only 17x17mm in size, it is extremely difficult to keep the ISL8240 modules cool while delivering full power. Interestingly, Intersil has already announced another module with single 50A and dual 25A module in the same size.

The efficiency of Intersil’s thermal design was evident at a thermal test conducted with the ISL8240 module delivering 40A as output. The fully encapsulated module showed an impressive 99.6°C maximum temperature. Intersil has an evaluation board for users to try their design – ISL8240MEVAL4Z. The tests were conducted using the evaluation board at room temperature without any air flow.

The secret of the Intersil thermal design is a multilayer PC board. The trick is in placing multiple vias strategically to maximize the thermal performance. If this is done correctly, the design need not use any heat sink or fan.

In addition, the IC is mounted thermally on to a copper substrate. This allows attainment of a low thermal resistance of the order of 8.5°C/W. The multilayer board also has two internal copper planes sandwiched in between. These are connected to the top plane with multiple vias, allowing a low thermal resistance design that can remove the excess heat efficiently from the module. The top and bottom layer of the 4-layer board uses 2 oz. Copper, while the inner board layers are made of 1 oz. Copper. Intersil offers Gerber files to speed up your design time.

Intersil makes the PCBs of FR4 grade board material and copper with small additional amounts of solder, nickel and gold. The board uses vias with a finished hole size of 0.012 inches. For making a via, the initial hole drilled is of 0.014 inches. Plating adds a copper wall of 0.001 inches to the hole. Subsequently, the board is plated overall with an ENIG process, adding about 200µ inches of nickel and 5µ inches of gold on to the outer copper surfaces.

If you consider the thermal resistance of one via to that of the copper in the board layers, it will be seen that the via has a much higher thermal impedance for each layer. However, one via occupies only about 1/5000th of a square inch of the board area. The effect of placing N multiple vias in an area is a reduction of the thermal resistance by Nx times.

The Ripple Rating of a Capacitor

Engineers do not prefer having ripples in their circuits and do their best to minimize its effects. For example, an AC source delivers power to an AC-DC converter that subsequently converts it to a steady DC output. It can be very inconvenient if the output were to have any source AC power appearing on top of the DC output in the form of small, frequency dependent variations. However, ripple may not be considered evil in all cases, as some digital signals could be useful to engineers as a necessary design function. Among these are signals that use changes in voltage levels to switch the state of a device and those generating clock timings.

As capacitors can store charge, they are useful for smoothening ripples in circuits. However, the designer must take care that the peak voltage does not exceed the voltage rating of the capacitor. It must also be noted that since there can be DC bias present in the circuit, the peak voltage will be the sum of the maximum ripple voltage and the DC bias. However, that is not enough for electrolytic capacitors.

Electrolytic capacitors are usually made with aluminum, tantalum and niobium oxide technologies and they have polarity. If the negative voltage of the ripple is allowed to drop below zero, this will cause a connected capacitor to operate under reverse bias conditions. Class II ceramic capacitors used in low frequency applications also suffer from this restriction.

A capacitor functions as a charge reservoir, charging with the rise of the incoming voltage and discharging into the load as it decreases – smoothening out the ripples in the process. Therefore, capacitors will see varying voltage. Additionally, depending on the power applied, the current through the capacitor will also vary, as will the intermittently pulsed and continuous power. This causes resultant changes in the electric field of the capacitor regardless of the incoming form and creates oscillating dipoles within the dielectric material, thereby self-heating the capacitor. Any parasitic inductance or ESL and resistance or ESR contributes to the energy dissipation.

That means a capacitor with low ESR, ESL and DF (dissipating factor), will heat up less than one with a dielectric characterized by high ESR and DF. However, as these parameters also depend on frequency, different dielectric materials offer optimum performance (lower heat generation) over different frequency ranges.

The dielectric in a capacitor is usually very thin constituting only a small amount of the overall mass of the capacitor. Other materials used in the construction also contribute to the heating when considering ripple – capacitor plates being one of the major contributors. Additionally, the conductive contacts also heat up to some degree when the capacitor carries an AC signal or current.

For example, at a certain frequency, if the capacitor with a 100mOhms ESR carries a 1A rms current, the power dissipated internally will be 100mW. If this power is supplied continuously, it will heat the capacitor internally until thermal balance is reached. Since this depends on ESR, the power dissipation is a function of frequency. However, the total thermal management will also depend on the capacitor’s environmental conditions, governing the heating up of the capacitor in an application.

Make the OpenJFX DukePad with a Raspberry Pi

If you are looking for a fun project aimed at making your own tablet computer at home based on the Raspberry Pi (RBPi) Single Board Computer, the DukePad is for you. As software, you will use the Raspbian Linux operating system and your environment will be OSGi-based JavaFX.

You can think of DukePad not as a product but an open-source set of plans and software freely available for assembling your own tablet for which, you will be using off-the-shelf components. At present, the DukePad software environment is only demo-quality, as more importance has been given to making the software for demonstration purpose rather than for real functionality.

Although, for the purpose of this guide, you need to name your RBPi with the host name of “dukepad”, you could have any other name of your choice. In addition, instead of letting the RBPi run X11, which it is fully capable of running, JavaFX will be used and it will take over the entire screen. However, while downloading the software into your RBPi, you may choose either to start up with X, or you could elect to download to your desktop PC and then scp/sftp the files into your RBPi.

To get started, you must set up your RBPi as usual; follow these steps if you do not know how. Setup you RBPi such that you have allotted a generous amount of memory to VRAM, also called graphic memory or Video Core. An even split of 256MB each for VRAM and for system memory is also acceptable. If you only have 256MB in total, you may also get by with a 128MB/128MB split, but you may have to tweak the amount of VRAM that FX will eventually use.

If you have not already downloaded and installed the latest JavaSE Embedded release, you may do so now. You can use either the weekly builds or the official builds, whichever is available. For the RBPi, you will have to look for Linux ARMv6/7 VFP, HardFP ABI. Other versions are not likely to work with RBPi.

For installation, you must uncompress the file you have downloaded and put it in a directory of your choice. A good choice would be to install it in the directory /opt; this will require you to assume the superuser status (root). Once you install JavaSE Embedded, it will include JavaFX as well. To play media, RBPi will need some additional packages. You will also need additional packages for configuring the auto-booting and the splash screen. In case you are not interested in creating a table device and you are simply planning to play with the DukePad software, you may safely skip the splash screen and auto boot instructions.

For the boot-loading screen, you need the “fbi” package and for being able to play media files, you have to download and install the “mpg321” package.

For building the body of DukePad, the CAD files are provided here. They contain the template for laser cutting the acrylics for the body, which is made from material of two thicknesses – 4.5mm and 3mm.

Embedded Linux on Raspberry Pi

Developers usually have two common models of development for Embedded Linux. One of them is the cross-platform development, where the aim is to develop programs that will eventually run on platforms different from the one being used by the developer. The other is self-hosted development to generate programs to run on similar platforms as the one being used for the development. The tiny single board computer, the RBPi or Raspberry Pi, lends itself beautifully to self-hosted developments when used as a target system. Although self-hosted developments are preferably done on fast machines running Virtual Mode installations, the major difference in using the RBPi as a target system is the challenge of its limited memory and a relatively slow processor.

The RBPi is an inexpensive and complete single board computer that runs on a 700MHz Broadcom ARM processor. Sporting 512MB of RAM, the SBC displays over high definition video output, supported by a GPU. You can connect a keyboard and a mouse to the on-board USB connectors and use the SD memory card for the OS and file system. Along with an Ethernet port, the SBC has significant expansion ability.

There are several other similar single board computers in the market with some of them being better suited for specific applications. However, the RBPi was specifically designed for educational use, which makes it eminently suitable to the specific purpose of self-hosted development. If your development is targeted at commercial applications, you may look at other SBCs tailored to the specific rigorous environment required by your application.

With a tremendous support base, the RBPi has its own dedicated website, how-to guides, online blogs, magazines and even videos. Follow the Quick Start Guide on the RBPi website and its recommendations of using the NOOBs SD card to install the Raspbian distribution.

The NOOBs SD card displays all the distributions available on it when the RBPi boots up from the SD card. Select the Raspbian and be prepared for the installation since it takes a while. Select only the locale where you live, as that cuts the installation time. After the installation, you can log in with the username as “pi” and the password as “raspberry.” RBPi needs some configuration to allow it to operate without confusion.

The primary configuration required may be that for the keyboard, since RBPi may not be displaying the symbols for the keyboard connected to it. You can use the nano editor to edit the file ‘keyboard’ at /etc/default and change to the proper country code suitable for the keyboard.

The next configuration parameter required may be for the Ethernet port, which by default, is assigned an IP address using DHCP. If your DHCP server is configured to assign the RBPi a different address at each restart of the RBPi, you must change its properties to serve the same IP address to the RBPi each time it submits a request. To do that, follow the tutorial here.

Once you log in to the RBPi, you will see that the distribution is nearly complete, with most of the development tools already installed. Although normally booting up into the command line mode, you can enter the GUI with a “startx” command. For instructions for the development work, follow this.

Flexible Aluminum Battery for Smartphones

Would you be interested in a battery that takes only a second to charge up and is flexible enough to wrap around your smartphone? While manufacturers would be more interested in the flexibility feature, most users will welcome the quick charging time. At Stanford University, researchers claim to have developed such a battery from cheap, plentiful materials. It is flexible and charges up very fast as well.

The new aluminum battery has a foil anode made of flexible aluminum, a cathode of graphite foam and an electrolyte of liquid salt. Researchers at the Stanford University say they discovered this aluminum and graphite battery quite by accident, but have worked on their discovery to improve its performance, especially the graphite cathode part.

Compared to a lithium-ion battery, the aluminum battery with its porous graphite cathode offers only one-third the capacity at a terminal voltage of 2.5V. Therefore, two aluminum batteries must be used in series to power most devices requiring 5V. However, the aluminum battery has a property that gives it an edge over its lithium-ion rival – a very high Coulombic efficiency of above 95%. Researchers are currently engaged in optimizing the capacity and other desirable qualities to match or surpass those of lithium-ion batteries.

The aluminum battery uses a liquid electrolyte, making it cheap and nonflammable. This is an ionic liquid made by mixing two solid precursors – EMIC and AlCl3, where EMIC stands for 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride and AlCl3 is aluminum chloride. While both compounds are individually solid, mixing them significantly lowers the melting point of the mixture so that it remains a liquid at room temperatures. The liquid electrolyte and the porous graphite electrode contribute to the super-fast recharging time, and the amount of current the aluminum battery can deliver.

The porous graphite foam cathode presents a large surface area, which is the governing factor for accessing the electrolyte. While charging, the large surface area presents a low energy barrier to the process of intercalation. The team expects the flexibility of the battery will be useful to manufacturers making flexible smartphones in the future.

The main attraction of the aluminum battery as compared to the lithium-ion batteries currently available is its capability of fast recharge. In fact, even the prototype reached 7.5 times the rate of charging of a commercial lithium-ion battery. Typically, lithium-ion batteries loose significant capacity after they have reached about 1000 recharge cycles. In comparison, an aluminum battery is capable of withstanding more than 7500 charges without any loss of capacity.

That makes the aluminum battery suitable for large installations such as storing solar energy during the day for release at night on the grid. These batteries are a perfect replacement for the lithium-ion batteries that occasionally burst into flames and for alkaline batteries that are bad for the environment. According to the researchers, even if someone were to drill through an aluminum battery, it will not catch fire.

At present, the only drawback is the terminal voltage. However, the researchers are optimistic that with a better cathode material, the aluminum battery can be made into a more powerful commercial battery.

Pico USB Scope for the Raspberry Pi

According to Pico Technology, the beta release of its drivers for the PicoScope oscilloscopes, useful for running on ARM-based single board computers, is available. That includes development systems such as the BeagleBone Black and the ever-popular Raspberry Pi, also known as the RBPi. For the RBPi, the drivers are a specialized armhf build under the control of its Raspbian OS. Pico Technology is offering this Beta release with some caveats.

Although the developers claim to have taken care of ensuring implementation of almost all the driver features, they may not work in all cases. The developers mention that the recommended systems requirement for the drivers specifies resources that most embedded systems will not be able to fulfill entirely. That means when the system is busy, the driver may not have enough resources for processing the data, which may result in the device being dropped or the application to hang. They also expect power surges, fuse blowing and port damage and to guard against this, they suggest powering the system through a separate USB hub.

All this makes it sound like the drivers are more suitable for advanced do-it-yourself people. It also suggests that the drivers are useful for working on other platforms, but Pico may not yet be in a position to offer support for these implementations. At present Pico is focusing their support for only two platforms – the RBPi and the BeagleBone Black.

The Pico USB Scope has advanced display software that assigns almost all the display area to the waveform. Therefore, the user is able to see the maximum amount of data at a time. Additionally, this makes the viewing area much larger and of a higher resolution than that available on a traditional bench top oscilloscope.

The large display area also makes it easier to create a customizable split-screen display for viewing multiple channels or for projecting different views of the same signal simultaneously. The software is capable of displaying both oscilloscope output and spectrum analyzer traces at the same time. Moreover, the software can flexibly control each waveform individually for zoom, pan and other filter settings.

Oscilloscopes frequently require using an analog or DC offset. Most PicoScope Oscilloscopes offer this valuable feature. With DC offset, you can get back the vertical resolution, which is usually lost while measuring small signals. In practice, an analog offset typically adds a DC voltage to the input signal. This is useful if the signal is beyond the range of the ADC of the scope. By adding an offset, the signal is brought back within the range and the display can use a more sensitive range.

For testing purposes, an AWG or arbitrary waveform generator is often required. This generates electrical waveforms that can be either a single-shot or repetitive. With an AWG, you can generate any arbitrarily defined wave shape to inject into a DUT or device under test for analysis by the PicoScope. The progress of the signal through the DUT confirms its proper operation and enables pinpointing any fault inside.

Deep-memory versions of the PicoScope oscilloscopes offer waveform-buffering sizes up to 2 gigasamples, which is much larger than that offered by competing scopes of traditional bench top or PC-based design. A hardware acceleration technique ensures the PicoScope does not slow down while using deep memory and displaying at full speed.