The IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine December 2020 Issue

Measurements for Advanced Networking and Networking for Advanced Measurements

(Measurement Applications)

Editorial

Bruno Andò Dear Readers,

Here we are again talking about an amazing subject strongly related to the Instrumentation and

Measurement field. This issue of Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine is dedicated to

“Measurement and Networking,” a very intriguing topic in the current era of IOT and 5G.

(Sensor) Networks are well-suited for a wide panorama of applications, from telemedicine and

advanced assistive systems to smart city related contexts. Everything is strongly connected to the

“measurement” world, just think to those applications enabled by smart-sensor-networks and

much more.

Such tools are being part of our everyday life and could have a strong impact towards the

improvement of our quality of life. However, to boost the quality of services supported by such

infrastructures and their reliability, it is particularly important to perform a reliable assessment of

their performance by developing dedicated measurement strategies.

In just a few words, “Measurements for Networking and Networking for Measurements” is a

concept very well-developed in the past few years by the Guest Editor of this special issue, Prof.

Leopoldo Angrisani, and his research team.

I really want to thank Prof. Angrisani and all our highly respected authors for the excellent

contributions they have elaborated and offered to our readership.

Have a nice time reading,

Bruno

Guest Editorial

Leopoldo Angrisani

In the last decades, the role of the networks and communications has rapidly gained momentum

thanks to their primary role for worldwide progress and improvement of the quality of life. As a

matter of fact, networks and communications represent the fundamental pillars for the

development of a number of applications and services: from providing widespread availability of

broadband internet access to mobile and wireless communications, enabling applications in the

fields of telemedicine, remote monitoring and control, smart road, smart city, Vehicle to Vehicle

(V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communications, Personal Healthcare monitoring,

Internet of Things (IoT), and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), just to name a few.

In such a wide and complex scenario, the development and the advancement of measurement

methods able to effectively and accurately qualify these networks have become crucial to

guarantee the necessary quality and performance as well as the continuous improvement of

networks. On the other hand, extended and reliable networks are essential for obtaining

comprehensive information about the monitored phenomena, aimed at more effective monitoring

and managing processes, for applying early warnings and predictive maintenance policies in

several fields from industrial to civil and public infrastructures as well as for healthcare.

These are the foundations on which this special issue of Instrumentation & Measurement

Magazine has been based and proposed. The concepts of Measurements for Networking and

Networking for Measurements were first introduced by my research group several years ago. In

2011, to share this (then new) perspective with the Scientific Community, I also co-founded the

biennial IEEE International Symposium on Measurements and Networking, which has now

become a widely attended event. I was also one of the co-founders of the IMS Technical

Committee “TC-37 Measurements and Networking” (whose current chair is Domenico

Capriglione). The scope of the TC-37 is to promote the international cooperation between

researchers from the IMS and colleagues from other areas of the telecommunication and

information technologies.

For this special issue of Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine, eight high-quality articles

have been selected, addressing some of the aforementioned topics. In particular, the paper “On

the Measurement of Human Exposure to Cellular Networks,” by Giovanni Betta, Domenico

Capriglione et al., highlights some open issues in human exposure measurement procedures to

electromagnetic fields emitted by 2G, 3G and 4G cellular base stations. Wide experimental

campaigns performed in several countries show how a suitable refinement of the measurement

methods and procedures, as well as data post-processing and averaging techniques, have been

investigated in detail in the community of measurements and networking for improving the

reliability of the measurement results.

The paper “Embedded Split Ring Resonator Network for Health Monitoring in Concrete

Structures,” by Erika Pittella, Leopoldo Angrisani et al., investigates the possibility of using a

split ring resonator network, with a single feeding line, to monitor cracks in the concrete and

identify their location with a single measurement. Exploiting microstrip technology, a diffused

monitoring can be achieved together with the possibility to use a low-cost, light, and adaptable

sensor. The proposed solution is novel and very promising concerning competitor solutions.

In a similar application context, the paper “Structural Health Monitoring and Prognostic of

Industrial Plants and Civil Structures: A Sensor to Cloud Architecture,” by Federica Zonzini,

Cristiano Aguzzi et al., describes a practical realization and application of a suitable architecture

to be used for several kinds of applications in the context of structural health monitoring and

prognostics. Both topics are very up-to-date and important also in modern industry scenarios.

“A Cross-Layer Measurement Approach to Assess LoRa Wireless Technology in Presence of

Noise,” by Pasquale Arpaia, Francesco Bonavolontà et al., addresses the performance

assessment of IoT devices based on LoRa communication technology in both design and

maintenance stages of the product life cycle. To this aim, the authors proposed a cross-layer

approach to experimentally correlate the values that characterize major physical layer quantities

to those assumed by key higher layer parameters, thus providing useful information to fix

possible problems at the vulnerable physical layer.

The paper “Exploiting IoT-Oriented Technologies for Measurement Networks of Environmental

Radiation,” by Rosario Schiano Lo Moriello et al., shows the potentiality of IoT architectures for

environmental monitoring in critical applications. In particular, they propose a scalable and

flexible network infrastructure that allows adding new nodes of different chemical or physical

quantities using minimal hardware requirements and standard software interface.

The work titled “Earthquake Early Detection as an IEEE1451 Transducer Network Trigger for

Urban Infrastructure Monitoring and Protection,” by Marco Carratù et al., shows an interesting

application of the IEEE1451 standard which is adopted for realizing a sensor network devoted to

the monitoring and early detection of dangerous events as an earthquake. The example highlights

the potential of such a standard in critical applications.

The paper “Network Measurements for Web Tracking Analysis and Detection: A Tutorial,” by

Ismael Castell-Uroz, Josep Solé-Pareta, and Pere Barlet-Ros, presents a very useful tutorial on

the topic of web tracking, a recent controversial practice from the security and privacy

perspective. In this article, a deep review of the scientific literature on this specific topic, as well

as the open issues and challenges the measurement community has to address to detect web

tracking more efficiently are discussed. Besides, a new large-scale web measurement framework

specifically designed to address these open issues and facilitate the detection of web tracking is

also proposed.

Finally, the paper “IEEE 802.15.22.3 Spectrum Characterization and Occupancy Sensing

Application Testbed,” by Gianni Cerro et al., describes the activity of a subgroup of the IEEE

802.15.22.3 Task Group for the design and the application of a testbed implementing the

standard in a laboratory-controlled environment. In particular, the Task Group works on

standardizing a Spectrum Characterization and Occupancy Sensing (SCOS) system, capable of

addressing a wide range of sensing tasks, and that can be easily and flexibly deployed across a

variety of hardware options.

I am confident that this special issue will offer the readers a comprehensive overview of the

potential and challenges of Measurements for Networking and Networking for Measurements. I

also hope that this special issue will serve as an inspiration for researchers (from both Academia

and Industry) to tackle existing and new societal problems, while using the available

measurement technologies and knowledge.

Article Summaries

On the Measurement of Human Exposure to Cellular Networks

(Summary)

Giovanni Betta, Domenico Capriglione, Gianni Cerro, Gianfranco Miele, Marzia Salone D’Amata, Darko Šuka, Predrag Pejovic´, and Mirjana Simic´-Pejovic

This paper highlights some open issues in human exposure measurement procedures to

electromagnetic fields emitted by 2G, 3G and 4G cellular base stations. Wide experimental

campaigns performed in several countries show how a suitable refinement of the measurement

methods and procedures, as well as data post-processing and averaging techniques, have been

investigated in detail in the community of measurements and networking for improving the

reliability of the measurement results. This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

Embedded Split Ring Resonator Network for Health Monitoring in Concrete Structures

(Summary)

Erika Pittella, Leopoldo Angrisani, Andrea Cataldo, Emanuele Piuzzi, and Francesco Fabbrocino

This article investigates the possibility of using a split ring resonator network, with a single

feeding line, to monitor cracks in the concrete and identify their location with a single

measurement. Exploiting microstrip technology, a diffused monitoring can be achieved together

with the possibility to use a low-cost, light, and adaptable sensor. The proposed solution is novel

and very promising concerning competitor solutions. This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

Structural Health Monitoring and Prognostic of Industrial Plants and

Civil Structures: A Sensor to Cloud Architecture (Summary)

Federica Zonzini, Cristiano Aguzzi, Lorenzo Gigli, Luca Sciullo, Nicola Testoni, Luca De Marchi, Marco Di Felice, Tullio Salmon Cinotti, Canio Mennuti, and Alessandro Marzani

The authors of this paper describe a practical realization and application of a suitable architecture

to be used for several kinds of applications in the context of structural health monitoring and

prognostics. Both topics are very up-to-date and important also in modern industry scenarios.

This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

A Cross-Layer Measurement Approach to Asses LoRa Wireless Technology in Presence of Noise

(Summary)

Pasquale Arpaia, Francesco Bonavolontà, Dominique Dallet, and Annarita Tedesco

This article addresses the performance assessment of IoT devices based on LoRa communication

technology in both design and maintenance stages of the product life cycle. To this aim, the

authors proposed a cross-layer approach to experimentally correlate the values that characterize

major physical layer quantities to those assumed by key higher layer parameters, thus providing

useful information to fix possible problems at the vulnerable physical layer.

This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

Exploiting IoT-Oriented Technologies for Measurement Networks of

Environmental Radiation (Summary)

Rosario Schiano Lo Moriello, Alessandro Tocchi, Annalisa Liccardo,

Francesco Bonavolontà, and Giorgio de Alteriis This paper shows the potentiality of IoT architectures for environmental monitoring in critical

applications. In particular, they propose a scalable and flexible network infrastructure that allows

adding new nodes of different chemical or physical quantities using minimal hardware

requirements and standard software interface. This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

Earthquake Early Detection as a IEEE1451 Transducer Network Trigger for Urban Infrastructure Monitoring and Protection

(Summary)

Marco Carratù, António Espírito-Santo, Gustavo Monte, and Vincenzo Paciello This article shows an interesting application of the IEEE1451 standard which is adopted for

realizing a sensor network devoted to the monitoring and early detection of dangerous events as

an earthquake. The example highlights the potential of such a standard in critical applications.

This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

Network Measurements for Web Tracking Analysis and Detection:

A Tutorial (Summary)

Ismael Castell-Uroz, Josep Solé-Pareta, and Pere Barlet-Ros

This research group presents a very useful tutorial on the topic of web tracking, a recent

controversial practice from the security and privacy perspective. In this article, a deep review of

the scientific literature on this specific topic, as well as the open issues and challenges the

measurement community has to address to detect web tracking more efficiently are discussed.

Besides, a new large-scale web measurement framework specifically designed to address these

open issues and facilitate the detection of web tracking is also proposed.

This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

IEEE 802.15.22.3 Spectrum Characterization and Occupancy Sensing Application Testbed

(Summary)

Gianni Cerro, Gianfranco Miele, Roger Hislop, Oliver Holland, and Apurva Mody

This paper describes the activity of a subgroup of the IEEE 802.15.22.3 Task Group for the

design and the application of a testbed implementing the standard in a laboratory-controlled

environment. In particular, the Task Group works on standardizing a Spectrum Characterization

and Occupancy Sensing system, capable of addressing a wide range of sensing tasks, and that

can be easily and flexibly deployed across a variety of hardware options.

This summary was written by the Guest Editor.

Columns

Life After Graduation (Summary)

The Union of Networks and Measurements

Vincenzo Marletta

“I don't know why but I particularly like the title of this issue of the Magazine: Measurements for

Advanced Networking & Networks for Advanced Measurements. I find this subject and this

apparent dualism very interesting. I speak of apparent dualism because, although it is correct to

separate the two topics, measurements for networking and networks for measurements (advanced

or not), and treat them separately, actually they go hand in hand.”

This is a small glimpse of text from the column.

Departments

New Products

Robert Goldberg

Please send all “New Products” information to: Robert M. Goldberg 1360 Clifton Ave.

PMB 336 Clifton, NJ 07012 USA

E-mail: r.goldberg@ieee.org

Real-Time Dashboards with Integrated Support for Keithley DAQ6510 and DMM6500

Native integration is now available between the Keithley DAQ6510 and DMM6500 instruments

with Initial State, an IoT dashboard for data streaming and visualization for remote data access.

Keithley and Initial State, both Tektronix companies, collaborated to integrate Initial State's data

streaming and visualization platform with the Keithley graphical DAQ6510 and DMM6500. This

integration gives a DAQ6510 / DMM6500 remote monitoring capability, real-time interactive

dashboards, triggering and the ability to share data—all without the need for a PC or external

software.

Designed for monitoring, test and data streaming applications, this software-as-a-service

platform can securely turn data into real-time, customizable IoT dashboards that are highly

interactive. This speed, remote access, and usability makes it possible to instantly interpret data

without the need to utilize third party software. Now users can monitor and analyze an

experiment remotely in any browser—including on mobile devices.

To meet testing needs, the dashboard can automate triggers and alerts based on incoming data, so

the DAQ can proactively send an email or text message based on rules established by the user.

The dashboard can also routinely share large data sets by embedding live data within a website.

Data can be downloaded and stored for personal use and documentation or shared securely with

colleagues or partners.

The dashboard is compatible with the DMM6500 6½-Digit Graphical Touchscreen Digital

Multimeter, a touchscreen bench/production test DMM with extensive measurement capability,

including transient capture, data visualizations, and analysis.

For more information, please visit https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/.

New Family of Avionics Interfaces for SuperSpeed USB 3.1

Astronics Corporation is launching a new family of pocket-sized USB interface devices using the

SuperSpeed USB 3.1 standard to easily connect computers to avionics data buses.

The UA2000 family of portable USB interfaces enable computers to communicate with,

simulate, test, and monitor avionics equipment and systems. They provide a fast and reliable

peripheral connection to a variety of avionics data buses including: MIL-STD-1553, ARINC

429, ARINC 708, ARINC 717, and Discrete I/O.

As a functional replacement for Ballard’s first generation of USB Adapter products, The

UA2000 family can be readily interchanged with customer’s existing units and current software

with no application modification typically required.

The UA2000 includes Ballard’s universal BTIDriver™ API, which enables customers to quickly

develop their own software applications. The company’s CoPilot® software, available as an

option, provides easy-to-use, interactive tools for data bus test, analysis, and simulation without

the need to write software.

Key features of the UA2000 include:

• Proven Performance—The UA2000 is the result of over 10 years of highly-successful

avionics interfacing experience using USB.

• Universal Compatibility—The all-new USB 3.1 design and low-power requirements

mean the UA2000 is compatible with USB 2, USB 3, USB 4, and Thunderbolt™ ports.

• The product ships with both USB-C and USB-A cables for easy connection to current and

future computer ports.

• Powerful Protocol Engine—The UA2000 hardware performs all protocol processing,

freeing your software to focus on high-level application-specific processing.

• Small, Rugged, and Portable—The UA2000 easily fits in the palm of the hand and is

equally at home in the lab or in the field. Flight Test Orange units are available for on-aircraft

use.

• Easy to Use—Plug and play and hot swap features make the UA2000 easy to install and

move between computers. The unit is fully powered by the USB port.

• Peace of Mind—The UA2000 family is FCC, CE, and RoHS compliant, comes with a 3-

year warranty, and is backed with industry-leading technical support.

For more information on Astronics and its solutions, visit http://www.Astronics.com.

Power Grid Simulators

Chroma 61800 3U high series of regenerative grid simulators include three models with power

ratings of 9 kVA, 12 kVA, and 15 kVA and include single phase and 3-phase operation. With

output voltage ranges up to 350 VLN and 606 VLL, each model can achieve 700 VLN by a

single phase 3-wire setup. Users can increase output power by configuring up to three units in

parallel.

Chroma 61809/61812/61815 models are regenerative, providing a complete energy-saving

solution. The power generated by the DUT during the test can be easily fed back to the grid,

rather than dissipated as heat, which protects the environment and lowers the cost of operation.

With this capability, the 61809/61812/61815 models can be applied to applications in green

energy products, such as PV inverters, energy storage systems (ESS), power conditioning

systems (PCS), micro grids, power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL), electric vehicle power supply

equipment (EVSE), on-board charger (OBC) and bidirectional on-board charger (BOBC), etc.

For regulatory testing, 61809/61812/61815 models can be applied to IEC 61000-3-2/-3- 3/-3-11/-

3-12 (international regulations for AC voltage testing), IEEE 1547/IEC 62116 (international

regulations related to green power generation), electric vehicle to grid (V2G) testing, electric

vehicle to load (V2L) testing, electric vehicle to home (V2H) testing, energy storage system

(ESS) testing.

The 61809/61812/61815 models are also able to provide precision measurements such as RMS

voltage, RMS current, true power, power factor, current crest factor and many others. By

applying advanced DSP technology, they can easily simulate power line disturbance (PLD) using

LIST, PULSE and STEP modes. Additional features such as the waveform synthesis function

allows users to program various distorted harmonic waveforms required by some regulatory

standards.

With the intuitive 5″ LCD touch screen interface, users can quickly get familiar with the

instrument’s operation.

Find more information at http://www.chromausa.com.

New Series of Data Loggers

CAS Dataloggers has announced the new Simple Logger® series of data loggers

from AEMC. The SL family includes ten different small, one channel recording devices

powered by two AA alkaline batteries. Models are available for recording AC voltage, DC

voltage, DC current, temperature or digital pulses and events. They are extremely easy to

configure with just a few parameters to setup—scaling, measurement units and recording length

can be configured through the free, downloadable software.

They can be connected to a Windows PC using the Micro-B USB cable included with the logger

to display real-time graphs, download and analyze data, print reports and export data.

The main advantage of the logger is its ability to begin recording with only the need to set a few

parameters. Then, just a simple button push is all you need. The front panel LED alerts the

operator of the logger’s status.

Key Features:

• Quick two wire input connection

• Simple one button operation

• User configurable scaling, units of measure and recording length

• Powered by 2 standard replaceable AA batteries

• Storage for up to four million measurements

• Software for real-time trend graph display, data download, analysis and report generation

• Micro-B USB cable included

The SL data loggers are great for applications that require a basic, easy to use device

such as:

• Basic DC voltage measurement for circuit design troubleshooting, power supply

profiling, sensor monitoring

• 4 to 20 mA DC process current monitoring

• AC voltage measurement to find sags and surges or when combined with a current

• transducer to track energy usage

• Simple, single point temperature monitoring using thermocouples or RTD

• Pulse counting for flow meters or power/energy meters

• Event monitoring

For more information on the new AEMC Simple Logger series visit

http://www.DataLoggerInc.com.

Multifunction Instrument Delivers Exceptional Measurement and Control Functionality

Marvin Test Solutions, Inc. has announced the release of the new GX3722 Series Multifunction

Analog and Digital I/O Instrument.

The GX3722 delivers exceptional flexibility and utility, with a unique mix of measurement and

control functionality, in a single high-performance 3U PXI hybrid slot compatible instrument.

Analog measurement capabilities include four time-interval channels, each rated at 10 MHz, with

channels supporting both 50 Ω and 75 Ω input impedance. Two digitizer channels, each with a

maximum sampling rate of 10 MS/s, include programmable input impedance and sampling rates

with a 24 Vpp input range.

Two channels of multifunction waveform generation deliver Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Square,

and Arbitrary signals up to 10 MHz, while four channels of dedicated square wave generation

further complement the source capabilities of this card. The addition of four 100 kHz differential

TTL I/O channels and three open collector output channels (50 V, 2.0 A) enable control of

external devices.

The GX3722 Series is supplied with GxFPGA, a software package that includes a virtual

instrument panel, and a Windows® 32/64-bit DLL driver and documentation.

To learn more about Marvin Test Solutions’ suite of PXI/PXIe user-programmable FPGA

modules, visit https://www.marvintest.com/category/fpga.

Economy Vector Signal Generator

The Rohde & Schwarz SMCV100B generator covers the 5G NR extended FR1 frequency range

up to 7.125 GHz, making it suitable for mobile communications applications. It also uses the

R&S WinIQSIM2 simulation software. This software supports all common cellular and wireless

connectivity standards, including standards for IoT and Wi-Fi (802.11xx) and many more. In

total, more than 30 standards are available, along with an arbitrary waveform generator to output

user-defined signals.

FPGA based real-time coders for broadcast standards used worldwide are available. The R&S

SMCV100B supports analog and digital radio standards as well as second and third generation

digital terrestrial and satellite-based television standards. This is the first economy platform that

supports ATSC 3.0 in addition to the DVB-T2 and DVB-S2X standards.

The R&S SMCV100B uses an advanced direct RF concept to generate output signals for

frequencies up to 2.5 GHz. This allows I/Q modulation and RF signal generation to be performed

in the digital domain, virtually eliminating the I/Q imbalance errors and LO leakage commonly

seen with conventional analog I/Q modulators. Thanks to the new concept, the SSB phase noise

performance of the signal generator is particularly good. An analog mixing concept is used to

generate frequencies above 2.5 GHz.

The high-performance, Linux based platform is completely extensible using software options.

All options are present in the device firmware and can be activated with option keys as needed.

This includes frequency extension up to 6 GHz or 7.125 GHz, increasing the RF modulation

bandwidth to 250 MHz, raising the RF output power to 23 dBm and waveform streaming with up

to 60 MHz (75 Msymbol/s) RF bandwidth.

Find more information at http://www.rohde-schwarz.com.

4-Channel Transient Data Acquisition System

CAS DataLoggers, in partnership with Delphin Technology, introduces a new model of the

Expert Transient data acquisition system, the 4 channel ET-4. Designed for data acquisition and

fault diagnostics, this system is especially suited for smaller applications that only require a few

analog input channels. A key feature of the Expert Transient family is the ability to

synchronously acquire multiple analog channels at sample rates up to 50 kHz. The ET-4 can

operate as a standalone device recording to internal memory to capture both transient and

periodical data.

In the event of a fault, this enables precise identification of the sequence of events in a

malfunction. Measurement data can be recorded either continuously or according to trigger

conditions and events including the ability to define triggers to record pre- and post-event data.

The ET-4 is equipped with powerful FPGA technology that provides extensive on-board

intelligence for calculations, logic, and data analysis.

In addition to the 4 analog input channels, the ET-4 has 4 digital inputs to capture pulses,

discrete inputs, or digital triggers. An extension bus allows the system to be extended to over 100

analog or digital inputs with high-speed synchronization protocols.

Features:

• 24 Bit A/D for high resolution measurements

• DataLoggerInc.com New 4-Channel ET-4 Expert Transient from Delphin 2

• 4 Analog outputs

• 8 Digital outputs

• Programmable anti-alias filtering

• Up to 14 GB of local non-volatile memory

• Support for USB, NFS, CIFS data storage, and FTP/SFTP file transfer

• Gigabit Ethernet interface, optional 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi

• RS-232, RS-485, CAN, ModBus RTU, ModBus TCP, and PROFIBUS interfaces

Data captured by the ET-4 can be displayed on a PC in trend charts using Delphin’s ProfiSignal

Go software.

For more information on the new Delphin ET-4 data acquisition system, visit

http://www.DataLoggerInc.com.

Vector Network Analyzer

The market and range of applications for the vector network analyzer have grown in recent years

and continue to do so. Growth is not simply driven by the proliferation of microwave, gigabit,

and wireless signals in our lives, but also in penetrating and short-range radar imaging and

proximity detection in secure spaces, and in dielectric materials, tissues and composites. The

vector network analyzer sits behind our data flow, communications, food, healthcare, defense,

civil infrastructure, robotics, and automation.

The newly announced PicoVNA 108, is in the same low-cost, small-footprint and portable

format as before. The PicoVNA 108 can see out further to 8.5 GHz, and it can see down deeper

to –124 dB.

Many users are aware that calibration standards and interconnects can both dominate

measurement errors in network analysis, so Pico supports both PicoVNA models with low-cost

but equally useful SMA and PC3.5 calibration standards and test leads, all with precision-

machined stainless steel connectors. PicoVNA software supports 8- or 12-term calibration,

including the "unknown thru" method. Unwanted measurement contributions from feedlines or

test jigs can be eliminated using manual or auto-sensed reference plane shift, normalization, or

de-embedded Touchstone, taken from either measurement or EM simulation. Fast Fourier time-

domain transformation and impedance transformation are both included as standard. TDT / TDR

plots have a system rise time down to 58 ps and these support resistance and distance to fault

readout out to over 100 meters.

More information on Pico Technology can be found at: http://www.picotech.com.

Compact, Low-Cost Optical Power Meters

PI introduces two new optical power meters for automated photonics alignment applications. The

F-712.IRP1 and its two-channel counterpart, the F-712.IRP2, convert optical signals in the 600

nm to 1700 nm range with optical power from 230 picowatts to 1.3 milliwatts into an analog

output voltage of 0.1 V to 1.6 V. To be useful for fast optical alignment systems, the output

signal conversion is logarithmic and optical power changes can be detected and converted with a

bandwidth of 6 kHz.

The logarithmic output scaling is especially important for fast scans and gradient search

algorithms because the signal strength can fluctuate by several orders of magnitude within a few

milliseconds, considering the minute dimensions of modern fiber optical components, such as

waveguides and arrays.

The broad optical range from 600 nm to 1700 nm allows for usability in both the visible and

infrared range without switching.

A clever design of the optical input connector / socket interface eliminates the influence of the

position of the optical fiber in the connector on the optical signal.

Find more information at https://www.pi-usa.us/en.

Amplifier Spans 10 kHz - 400 MHz Range With 1000 Watts of Power

AR's new amplifier, Model 1000A400, provides CW power up to 1000 watts, covering 10 kHz

to 400 MHz. In conjunction with AR's accessories and antennas, the 1000A400 is optimal for

reaching today's higher radiated and conducted susceptibility test levels, such as the increased

conducted immunity test levels of composite aircraft in the frequency range of 10 kHz to 400

MHz, along with many other applications.

Some key features of AR’s Model 1000A400 are:

• Rated Output Power: 1200 watts typical, 1000 watts minimum

• Power Output @ 1dB Compression: 1000 watts typical, 800 watts minimum

• 10 kHz - 400 MHz instantaneous frequency response

• Class A

• Portable

• Full VSWR Tolerance

• CE Compliant (EMC, LVD, and RoHS)

For more information, please visit www.ARWorld.US

Process Control Sensors with Digital Communication Interface

Digital communication opens many opportunities—but only sensors that reliably deliver precise

measured values offer real added value by Baumer’s IO-Link. Well established and appreciated

by many users, both pressure sensor PP20H and CombiLyz AFI conductivity sensors excel by

measuring performance and IO-Link interface, but now they offer even more interesting features

such as simple and fast parameterization- even during operation. This way, secondary data like

different process data output simultaneously or diagnostic data only accessible this way can be

communicated from sensor to controller or even retrieved from the sensor memory if required.

Dual Channel enables analog as well as digital sensor operation or both at the same time—this

way, Baumer process sensors such as conductivity sensor CombiLyz AFI and pressure sensor

PP20H work both in conventional control topologies and digital IO-Link control environments.

In process automation, the proven analog interface is helpful for sensor integration into existing

control concepts. Nevertheless, in sensor commissioning, IO-Link advantages such as easy and

fast parameterization or access to secondary data are a valuable help. For process control,

parallel readout of conductivity or pressure value is enabled via 4... 20 mA analog output.

IO-Link provides access to valuable secondary data: process data including sensor temperature

respectively process temperature of PP20H. Such information allows for interesting conclusions,

e.g., unusual temperature rise in containers or pipes. Such data are basic for predictive

maintenance. CombiLyz AFI conductivity sensor delivers information on media concentration in

addition to media conductivity. By doing so, the medium in process and its concentration is

precisely identified. Pressure sensor PP20H delivers ambient pressure information in addition to

process pressure. Therefore, the sensor can be deployed for both absolute and relative pressure

measurement.

With CombiLyz conductivity sensors and PP20H pressure sensors now featuring this digital

communication interface, Baumer further adds on their portfolio of IO-Link process sensors.

Solutions for flow and level detection using this digital communication standard are also

available.

Further information can be found at http://www.baumer.com/io-link-process-sensors.

Cameras Feature Fourth-Generation Sensor

IDS has integrated the high-performance, extremely high-resolution sensor IMX541 from the

Pregius S series into the versatile uEye SE camera family. Thanks to its compact 1.1" format, the

20.35 MP CMOS sensor is compatible with C-mount lenses. The industrial cameras feature a

practical USB3 Vision interface, deliver 20 fps and will be available either as board-level models

or with a robust metal housing.

Pregius S—the fourth generation of extremely powerful CMOS image sensors from Sony—

makes BSI ("Back Side Illuminated") technology available for the first time in global shutter

sensors. The benefits are smaller pixels (only 2.74 µm, which allows a significantly higher pixel

density), higher resolution and improved quantum efficiency and sensitivity. The new camera

models deliver outstanding image quality that meets demanding machine vision applications

such as surface inspections, detailed image evaluation in medical technology or use in the traffic

sector.

The compact industrial cameras are also a sensible alternative to cameras with similar high-

resolution, but large-format sensors, for which F-mount lenses are usually required. With the

uEye SE models, C-mount lenses can be used—which means considerable cost savings.

Further information can be found at https://en.ids-imaging.com/news-article/ueye-se-sony-

imx541.html.