Smart Tweezers LCR-meter Gets Developmental Help from Russian Academy of Sciences

Top Quote Canadian handheld digital LCR-meter gets help in production of a new model from the Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, Russia. End Quote
  • (1888PressRelease) October 12, 2012 - Siborg Systems Inc., based in Ontario, Canada, is joining efforts with the Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Russian Academy of Sciences in developing a new version of Smart Tweezers automatic LCR-meter that will hopefully be at a lower price range.

    Smart Tweezers are a fully-automatic LCR-meter, the answer to problems with electronic testing and troubleshooting.

    The most common practice for manufacturing electronics is called Surface Mount Technology (SMT), in which the components, known as Surface Mount Devices (SMDs), are mounted directly onto a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). These SMD components are very small and may or may not have wire leads. The size of them makes them near-impossible to label, making differentiating between components difficult, as well as making them perceptible to lost values or lost components themselves.

    Smart Tweezers are the simple solution to these problems. Easily operated with just one hand, the lightweight device quickly evaluates all passive types of SMT components, including Resistors, Capacitors, and Inductors, automatically. It also selects the proper range and test signal frequency for the highest accuracy results. Fitted with a small LCD screen, the device then displays the measurement results, component type, and test conditions used.

    "The main advantage of Smart Tweezers is a quick and highly accurate evaluation of SMT components as small as 0.3 mm" says Michael Obrecht, Director of Research and Development at Siborg Systems Inc. "This accuracy level of about 0.2% is only available from expensive bench-type LCR-meters that require significant efforts in setting-up the measurements."

    "From the very beginning, Smart Tweezers use sinusoidal test signals to evaluate impedance of the measured component. THis involves a test signal generation that employs a Pulse Modulated Width (PMS) and high order filters that ensure a proper accurac of the generated test signal entailing significant cost of the require components and PCB complexity leading to a relatively high manufacturing cost of the device."

    "During one of the many exhibits that we [Siborg Systems] attend every year, I met Valentin Litvintsev, an expert in analog circuit design who suggested a new way of creating a test signal for LCR-meter that would require significantly fewer number of components, thus reducing manufacturing cost."

    "I liked the device from the very first glance. It is a very good product that is useful in many electronic applications. The only disadvantage it has is a relatively high price. I think we can manufacture a similar type of device with a bit lower accuracy but more affordable." said Valentin Litvintsev, the Team Lead at the Institute of Automation and Electrometry in Novosibirsk.

    About Siborg Systems Inc:
    Established in 1994, Siborg Systems Inc. is a source of engineering software and hardware tools for semiconductor and electronics industry. Located in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, it enjoys being part of the local world-renowned high-tech community.

    About Institute of Automation and Electrometry:
    The Institute was founded in 1957 among the first institutions of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

    Research directions of the Institute comprise optics and laser physics, including physical processes in gaseous and condensed media induced by a radiation, nonlinear phenomena at the interaction of the radiation with structured materials; fundamental as well as applied research and development in the field of laser and optical technologies; architecture, system solutions, mathematical models and software for data processing and computing systems of recognition, analysis and representation of information and control systems for complex dynamic processes.

    The Institute is the publisher of "Avtometriya", which is published in English in the U.S.A. under the name of "Optoelectronics, Instrumentation and Data Processing".

    Contact:
    Academician Koptug ave. 1, Novosibirsk, Russia, 630090
    Tel.: +7 (383) 330-1239
    Fax: +7 (383) 333-38-63

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