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From Bob Helsel,
Editor, AXIe Newsletter

Welcome to the AXIe Newsletter, Sept. 2013 issue. We have three articles in this issue as well as highlighting some new AXIe products from our members.

First, AXIe Development Tools Debut at Autotestcon, summarizes the availability of two new development tools that will greatly enhance the capability of vendors and system integrators to produce and deploy AXIe instruments and systems. Second, we have an application article, How to use an AXIe Digitizer-based Solution to Perform Multi-antenna Array Measurements, which describes an innovative solution for accelerating calibration of multi-antenna arrays using a high-speed, multi-channel digitizer with real-time digital downconversion (DDC). Finally, we offer an educational article on revision 2.0 of the AXIe Base Architecture Specification.

Our AXIe Consortium LinkedIn membership numbers continue to increase and we are now a community of over 300 members.

Test and Measurement World awarded its Best in Test Award 2013 in the category of signal analyzers to Agilent for its AXIe based High-Speed Digitizer.

If you want to stay abreast of the AXIe standard you can subscribe to the new AXIe consortium YouTube Channel, or view the latest presentation on the website to see which applications can be addressed with products based on the AXIe standard.

Visit http://www.axiestandard.org for more information.

AXIe Development Tools Debut at Autotestcon

By Larry Desjardin, Modular Methods

Two new vendors of AXIe products, Elma Electronic and Hiller Measurements, announced powerful development tools for the AXIe modular instrument standard at Autotestcon 2013. The tools are designed to help vendors and system integrators quickly develop and deploy AXIe instruments and systems.

“Until now, developers who wished to take advantage of AXIe capabilities faced significant development and learning curve hurdles,” said Von Campbell, chairman of the AXIe Consortium. “With the tools and products coming from Elma Electronic and Hiller Measurements, vendors and users can now focus on their unique circuitry and software, as much of the platform engineering is taken care of for them.”

Elma Electronic, a well-known vendor of AdvancedTCA® products and platforms, is now offering AXIe products. For chassis developers, Elma Electronic has developed an AXIe IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) Shelf Manager card with redundant IPMB (Intelligent Platform Management Bus). The shelf manager’s system monitoring features include power management, cooling control, event sensor logging, electronic keying, and module hot-swap monitoring.

Thanks to all our readers.
Bob Helsel, Editor
www.axiestandard.org

New AXIe Products

The members of the AXIe Consortium continue to release a steady flow of new products based on the emerging AXIe standard, some of which are spotlighted below:

AXIe-1 Base Architecture Specification Products

M8061A Multiplexer 2:1 With De-Emphasis 28 Gb/s

M8192A Multi-Channel Synchronization Module for M8190A

U4431A MIPI M-PHY Protocol Analyzer

U4421A Protocol Analyzer and Exerciser for MIPI D-PHY Interfaces

M9703A AXIe 12-bit High-Speed Digitizer

ADC 6000 Series AXIe-based Digitizer Module

DDR Logic Analyzer U4154A

AWG (Arbitrary Waveform Generator) M8190A

AXIe-3.1 Semiconductor Test Extension Products

AX500 - AXIe Benchtop System

High Volume Production Test System

How to use an AXIe Digitizer-based Solution to Perform Multi-Antenna Array Measurements

This application note describes an innovative solution for accelerating calibration of multi-antenna arrays using a high-speed, multi-channel digitizer with real-time digital downconversion (DDC). The solution characterizes the element-to-element phase and magnitude errors of the various components in the array. The misalignment of the radiating elements can then be accurately identified and calibrated out to ensure efficient operation of the antenna system.

In an array of antennas with hundreds or thousands of elements, where it is necessary to characterize the phase and gain alignment between elements, the ability to accelerate test by using multiple coherent measurement channels is a significant benefit. Of equal importance, as technology evolves and antenna configurations continue to have higher and higher antenna element densities, is a scalable platform that can accommodate additional parallel channels.

AXIe Releases Revision 2 of AXIe Base Architecture Specification

By Larry Desjardin, Modular Methods

The AXIe Base Architecture Specification (AXIe-1) defines the standard for most AXIe instruments. It is layered on top of the AdvancedTCA industrial bus standard, with extensions for instrumentation. It is the second layer in the AXIe specification table below.

2.0

An additional specification is AXIe-2, a software specification to make AXIe products appear as PXI products to an instrument controller. Finally, AXIe-3.1 defines extensions for semiconductor test.

Revision 2 of AXIe-1 was released at the beginning of September after ratification by the AXIe Board of Directors. Revision 2 is the result of extensive interoperability testing between vendors, and modifies the standard to improve interoperability or define new capabilities.