Agilent Technologies Introduces First DC Power Analyzer that Performs Complex DC Sourcing, Measuring Tasks without Programming

May 1, 2007

Due to increasing time-to-market pressures, research and development engineers often find themselves on a tight schedule to test their designs and DUTs (Device Under Test). Along with being driven faster, R&D engineers can face a high regret factor should their haste result in damaging scarce, complex or expensive DUTs during product development. This is of particular concern when tests involve applying DC power to a DUT. Furthermore, the level of concern increases when testing devices that require multiple input voltages, such as printed circuit boards.

R&D engineers routinely must perform such DC sourcing and measurement tasks as:

• Setting up and viewing critical turn-on/turn-off sequences;
• Measuring and displaying voltage and current versus time to visualize power into the DUT;
• Controlling DC bias supply ramp-up/down rates;
• Generating DC bias supply transients and disturbances to see how the DUT responds; and/or
• Logging data for seconds, minutes, hours, or even days to see current consumption or capture anomalies.

Today, when performing DC power-related tests, R&D engineers must gather and configure multiple instruments to complete DC sourcing and measurement tasks. When executing these complex tasks, which can involve simultaneously connecting to and physically interacting with multiple test instruments, the risk of error increases. In response, R&D engineers may choose to automate tests that are too complex to do manually. Unfortunately, while automating tasks reduces human error, writing and debugging programs adds more work to already overloaded R&D engineers.

New instrument category for R&D engineers targeted at saving time

Agilent Technologies has introduced the N6705A DC Power Analyzer, an integrated instrument to provide R&D engineers test insights into a DUT's power consumption in minutes, and without having to write a single line of code. The N6705A DC Power Analyzer eliminates the need for multiple pieces of equipment and complex test setups. With built-in current measurements, the DC Power Analyzer also eliminates the need for transducers, such as current probes and shunts, to measure current into the DUT. This tool represents an entirely new instrument category for R&D engineers.

Agilent has set out to improve the overall testing experience of the R&D engineer. The Agilent DC Power Analyzer is designed to provide an easy-to-use R&D tool for sourcing and measuring DC voltage and current into the DUT by integrating up to 4 advanced power supplies with DMM, Scope, Arb, and Datalogger features. Because all functions and measurements are available at the front panel, the DC Power Analyzer eliminates the need to develop and debug programs to control a collection of instruments. When automated bench setups are required, the N6705A is fully programmable over GPIB, USB, LAN and is LXI class C compliant.

The Agilent DC Power Analyzer may be tailored to meet specific engineering needs. The instrument offers flexible configuration to meet specific power sourcing and analysis requirements. The N6705A accepts the same modules as the industry-leading Agilent N6700 Low-Profile Modular Power System, with 21 modules to choose from. Sources for the N6705A include:

Easy, all-in-one front-panel design

The design of the Agilent N6705A makes tasks easy to execute right from the front panel. With connections and controls that are color-coded to the display, the R&D engineer can quickly set up and control the DC Power Analyzer, confident that it is configured properly and working correctly. Dedicated controls for common functions provide familiar operation, with each instrument function behaving like its standalone counterpart. All the functions and measurements are available at the front panel, thereby eliminating the need for a PC, drivers and software, and reducing 90 percent of the effort associated with setup. The interactive front panel allows the R&D engineer to save data and screen shots to internal storage or external USB memory devices, save and name the setup and tests for easy re-use and share setups with colleagues across the building or across the world

The N6705A is a multifunctional power instrument with breakthrough usability

The Agilent DC Power Analyzer comes packed with many features and benefits including a flexible configuration to meet various power sourcing and analysis requirements. The N6705A can support modules totaling up to 600 W of power, with 21 modules to choose from. The analyzer has the ability to modulate each output via an integrated arbitrary waveform generator. With output speeds of up to 160 microseconds per step-voltage change and with a bandwidth up to 5 kHz, the DC Power Analyzer can generate high-power DC transients or simulate line ripple. The N6705A has the ability to measure output voltage and current using its built-in DMM, oscilloscope and datalogger, and has 64 megabytes of internal file storage (which is 30 minutes of data at 50,000 readings per second on all channels simultaneously). External USB storage is supported for increased storage capacity for longer tests.

The DC Power Analyzer has the ability to save test setups, test data or screen captures to a USB memory device, allowing for capture of long data files and easy transfer to a PC in another location for analysis or integration into test reports. The N6705A has the ability to quickly remove power by pressing the emergency stop button should a DUT experience a hazardous failure during test. Pressing the emergency stop button on the analyzer keeps any measurements running and retains collected data which can save the R&D engineer precious re-test time.

Key Specifications (Approximate values for families of modules see data sheet for specifics)

Series	Power	Voltage Range	Current Range	Autoranging	Meas Acc'y Volts/Current	Noise	Polarity Reverse Relays	Output Relays
N6730B	500W	6 models: 5V to 100V	6 models: 0.5 A to 10 A	No	0.1% + 50 mV 0.15% + 20 mA	20 mVpp	Optional	Optional
N6740B	100W	6 models: 5V to 100V	6 models 1 A to 20 A	No	0.1% + 50 mV 0.15% + 20 mA	20 mVpp	Optional	Optional
N6770A	300W	4 models: 20V to 100V	4 models 3 A to 15 A	No	0.1 + 50 mV 0.15% + 20 mA	40 mVpp	Optional	Optional
N6751A N6752A	50W 100W	50V	5 A 10A	Yes	0.05% + 20 mV 0.1% + 4 mA	0.3 mVrms 4.5 mVpp	Not available	Optional
N6754A	300W	60V	20A	Yes	0.06% + 25 mV 0.1% + 10 mA	1 mVrms 6 mVpp	Optional	Optional
N6761A N6762A	50W 100W	50V	1.5 A 3 A	Yes	0.016% + 6 mV 0.03% + 200 uA	0.3 mVrms 4.5 mVpp	Not available	Optional

Scope: 50 kHz digitizer for N673x, N674x, N675x, N676x and N677x modules

ARB: Approx max bandwidth = 5 kHz for N675x and N676x modules; 500 Hz for N673x, 4x, 7x modules

The Agilent N6700 Low-Profile Modular Power System Family

The Agilent N6705A DC Power Analyzer is part of Agilent's N6700 Modular Power System family. For the past three years, this Modular Power System (MPS) family has led the market by offering solutions focused on ATE, with small size, fast output speeds, and a modular, flexible configuration. Now, along with the new N6705A DC Power Analyzer, Agilent's N6700 MPS family provides a complete spectrum of solutions from R&D through Design Validation, and on into Manufacturing. At the heart of the modular system is the DC Power Module offering 22 different DC Power Modules types today. These DC Power Modules are used by both the N6705A DC Power Analyzer (for bench testing) and by the N6700 Low-Profile MPS (for ATE systems). All products in the MPS family are LXI class C compliant and bring to reality Agilent's promise of common LXI solutions spanning R&D to manufacturing, allowing for software code reuse and providing test correlation all with the same underlying hardware.

R&D engineers find the Agilent N6705A DC Power Analyzer truly delivers on its productivity promise. Quotations from users include: "I could have done it with LabView, but it is easier to do with this product. It is all on the front panel." "A lot of great capabilities ... You did a really nice job of integrating a scope, a function generator, and a power supply. We don't usually have these boxes around." "A lot of capabilities here that would make the job easier." "This is a lot more efficient." "Using this product, I can do in 5 minutes what used to take me 2 days."

For additional information on the Agilent N6705A DC Power Analyzer, visit the product web site at www.agilent.com/find/N6705.