Asset management system for HF sensitive measurement devices

• US 9,696,343 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2014
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Company KG
• Original Assignee: Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Company KG
• Inventors: Ripp, Harald, Mann, Hans-Joachim, Winkler, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THANG XUAN
• Application Number:
  US14/341,031
• Publication Number:
  US 20160025784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• Field of Search: 324555, 324144, 32475026, 32475027, 324537
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 1/04 Housings; Supporting members; Arrangements of terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 1/18 Screening arrangements against electric or magnetic fields, e.g. against earth's field
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/31907 Modular tester, e.g. controlling and coordinating instruments in a bus based architecture
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

Abstract

An asset management system comprising an asset management server connected to a plurality of distributed HF sensitive measurement devices each having at least one inseparable asset tag being located outside a high frequency shield which shields an internal circuitry of the measurement device from external high frequency signals and being configured to provide asset data of the respective measurement device to be processed by the asset management server.

Claims

1. A high frequency sensitive measurement device comprising:

a measurement circuitry sensitive to high frequency signals and adapted to perform frequency measurements of external circuits;

wherein the measurement circuitry comprises a surrounding high frequency shield adapted to shield the measurement circuitry from external high frequency interference signals,

wherein the high frequency sensitive measurement device comprises at least one inseparable asset tag located outside the high frequency shield and being integrated in a housing of the high frequency sensitive measurement device,

wherein the at least one inseparable asset tag is connected via signal lines to the measurement circuitry,

wherein the signal lines are isolated from the high frequency shield and go through a hole of the high frequency shield,

wherein dynamic asset data is outputted by the at least one inseparable asset tag that indicates a current calibration state of the measurement circuit and comprise local sensor data provided by local sensors of the high frequency sensitive measurement device, and wherein the at least one inseparable asset tag being is configured to communicate with an external interrogator of an asset management system.

2. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the high frequency sensitive measurement device is configured so that, if the sensor data provided by the local sensors indicate that environmental conditions of the high frequency sensitive measurement device go beyond a predetermined range a corresponding calibration request indicator flag is set in the at least one inseparable asset tag.

3. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the high frequency sensitive measurement device comprises at least one data interface for connecting the high frequency sensitive measurement device via a data network to a control server and/or an asset management server of a production facility.

4. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 3, wherein the asset management server is configured to perform an asset management of a plurality of distributed measurement devices on the basis of asset data received from asset tags of the distributed measurement devices.

5. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one inseparable asset tag of the high frequency sensitive measurement device comprises asset data indicating a current state of the measurement circuitry of the high frequency sensitive measurement device.

6. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 5, wherein an asset management server of the asset management system is adapted to evaluate current states of a plurality of high frequency sensitive measurement devices on the basis of the received asset data to identify at least a subset of the plurality of high frequency sensitive measurement devices requiring calibration or recalibration of components within the measurement circuitry of each of the high frequency sensitive measurement devices within the subset.

7. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the high frequency sensitive measurement device comprises an internal operation time measurement unit adapted to measure the operation time of the high frequency sensitive measurement device and to set a calibration request indication flag if the operation time of the high frequency sensitive measurement device exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

8. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 7, wherein the at least one inseparable asset tag of the high frequency sensitive measurement device is adapted to transmit the calibration request indication flag to the interrogator of the asset management system which supplies the calibration request indication flag along with an identifier of the high frequency sensitive measurement device to an asset management server of the asset management system.

9. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 8, wherein the identified measurement device to be recalibrated is transported to a calibration apparatus configured to recalibrate the identified measurement device.

10. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one inseparable asset tag of the high frequency sensitive measurement device comprises an active asset tag and/or a passive asset tag.

11. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 10, wherein the high frequency sensitive measurement device comprises a short range asset tag and/or a long range asset tag, wherein the long range asset tag of the high frequency sensitive measurement device provides asset data evaluated to locate the high frequency sensitive measurement device in a facility and wherein the short range asset tag of the high frequency sensitive measurement device provides asset data to indicate a current state of the high frequency sensitive measurement device.

12. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 11, wherein the short range asset tag comprises a near field communication (NFC) tag.

13. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 11, wherein the long range asset tag comprises a Bluetooth tag.

14. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the high frequency sensitive measurement device further comprises at least one hidden middle range antitheft tag.

15. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the ranges of the at least one inseparable asset tag of the high frequency sensitive measurement device are preconfigured or adjusted depending on the physical dimensions of the high frequency sensitive measurement device and/or the respective facility.

16. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 15, wherein the range of an inseparable short range asset tag is preconfigured or adjusted to:

R=½

Min(W,H,L),

wherein W is the width of the housing of the high frequency sensitive measurement device, H is the height of the housing of the high frequency sensitive measurement device, and L is the length of the housing of the high frequency sensitive measurement device, so that R equals one half of a minimum value of one among W, H, and L.

17. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one inseparable asset tag comprises a write memory to which configuration data can be written by the interrogator of the asset management system.

18. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one inseparable asset tag comprises a proximity detection unit configured to detect the presence of the external interrogator of the asset management system in the vicinity of the at least one inseparable asset tag and to push automatically asset data from the at least one inseparable asset tag to the external interrogator if the external interrogator is within the range of the at least one inseparable asset tag.

19. The high frequency sensitive measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the measurement circuitry of the high frequency sensitive measurement device comprises high frequency components sensitive to external high frequency signals shielded by the surrounding high frequency shield.

20. An asset management system comprising an asset management server connected to a plurality of distributed high frequency (HF) sensitive measurement devices each HF sensitive measurement device having comprising:

a measurement circuitry sensitive to high frequency signals and adapted to perform frequency measurements of external circuits,

wherein the measurement circuitry has a surrounding high frequency shield adapted to shield the measurement circuitry from external high frequency (HF) interference signals, at least one inseparable asset tag being located outside the high frequency shield and being integrated in a housing of the HF sensitive measurement device,

wherein the inseparable asset tag is connected via signal lines to the measurement circuitry, wherein the signal lines are isolated from the high frequency shield and go through a hole of the high frequency shield,

wherein the inseparable asset tag is adapted to provide static asset data and dynamic asset data, wherein the dynamic asset data indicate a current calibration state of the measurement circuitry and comprise local sensor data provided by local sensors of the high frequency (HF) sensitive measurement device, said inseparable asset tag being configured to communicate with an external interrogator of an asset management system.

21. The asset management system according to claim 20, wherein each HF sensitive measurement device comprises at least one inseparable short range asset tag and/or an inseparable long range asset tag read by the external interrogator switchable between at least two operation modes, wherein the external interrogator is configured to read in a first operation mode first asset data from the inseparable long range asset tags attached to the distributed HF sensitive measurement devices and is configured to read in a second operation mode second asset data from the inseparable short range asset tags attached to the distributed HF sensitive measurement devices.