System and method for improving electrical equipment accuracy by environmental condition compensation
First Claim
1. An electrical circuit comprising:
- circuitry for generating an output signal having a certain set of characteristics, said characteristics subject to change dependant upon the present environmental loss characteristics of said electrical circuit;
means for determining the present environmental loss characteristics of said electrical circuit; and
means controlled at least in part by said determining means for maintaining said certain set of characteristics without regard to said present environmental loss characteristics of said electrical circuit.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method is designed to measure its own environmentally caused inaccuracies and, based upon these measurements, adjust itself to compensate for the inaccuracies. In one embodiment, a test system first measures the signal loss through a model “long” path constructed in the same substrate as is the main test circuit. Since the test path is constructed on the same substrate it then represents the actual environmental impact on the test circuit. The test signal is then sent through a “short” test path and the ratio difference from a reference measurement condition between the two paths yields the necessary compensation which is then used to calibrate the test circuit. In another embodiment, a test signal is applied across a capacitance made up of copper on different layers of substrate material. The actual environmental conditions on the substrate layers modify the measured capacitance value, which is then provided along with temperature as input to a model which determines compensation for the test circuit. Both embodiments can be applied to individual circuits or to systems that are subject to environmentally induced changes to their transmission line loss characteristics.
18 Citations
40 Claims
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1. An electrical circuit comprising:
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circuitry for generating an output signal having a certain set of characteristics, said characteristics subject to change dependant upon the present environmental loss characteristics of said electrical circuit;
means for determining the present environmental loss characteristics of said electrical circuit; and
means controlled at least in part by said determining means for maintaining said certain set of characteristics without regard to said present environmental loss characteristics of said electrical circuit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. The method of testing equipment in an environment in which moisture changes the test signal along a signal trace on a substrate;
- said method comprising compensating said test signal for the cumulated effects of said moisture.
- View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 17)
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15. A test system comprising:
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a signal generator;
a signal measuring receiver;
circuitry for determining the present environmental loss characteristics of said signal generator and said signal measurement receiver; and
circuitry operative in response to said determining circuitry for adjusting either said signal measuring receiver or said signal generator or both said signal measuring receiver and said signal generator to account for said present environmental loss characteristics of said electrical circuit. - View Dependent Claims (16, 18, 19)
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20. The method of calibrating a test protocol, said method comprising:
generating a test protocol compensation data under control of circuitry constructed on at least one substrate having a certain set of physical properties, said physical properties influenced by accumulated environmental conditions in a manner similar to the influence said environmental conditions exert on the circuitry controlling an actual test. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. The method of calibrating electronic test equipment comprising:
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at a point in time, initially calibrating an RF signal to compensate for inaccuracies in said RF signal; and
at a later point in time recalibrating said RF signal to compensate for changes to said RF signal caused by the cumulative effects of moisture and temperature on the circuit board containing the RF path through which said RF signal propagates. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification