Laboratory

Advanced Instrumentation

In order to verify hardware characteristics and parameters of a device under to meet specification, advanced measurement and instrumentation tools are available at the SCHMID mme hardware laboratory.

All instrumentation is available in parallel to product development, so any project stage — from the first prototype to a pilot-run sample — can be verified.

SCHMID mme uses, among others, the equipment below:

Oszilloscopes with bandwidths up to 2 GHz and vertical resolution of 12 bit, 8 GS/s, 4 channels, deep memory
(Teledyne LeCroy)
Active, differential, and current probes up to 1.5 GHz and 50 A
(Teledyne LeCroy)
Protocol analysis of Bluetooth/USB/CAN/I2C/SPI/MIPI-DPHY
(Frontline/Teledyne LeCroy)
Signal and arbitrary generators, multi-channel, with analog and digital modulation up to 4 GHz
(Keysight/Agilent, Tektronix, IFR)
Spectrum analyzer up to 4 GHz with active and close field probes
(Keysight/Agilent)
Calibrator for U/I/R/C/L
(Fluke)
Components and LCR analyzer
(Keysight/Agilent)
Battery simulator
(Keithley)
Multimeter up to 7.5 digits
(Keithley/Tektronix)
Frequency counter
(Fluke)
Pressure calibrator
(Wika)
Magnetometer
(Brockhaus)
Electrostatic measurement devices
(Kleinwächter)
Artificial mains (230 V up to 400 Hz) with low distortion
High-resolution digital microscope
(Tagarno)

Environmental Simulation

Evaluation device functionality at room temperature does not nearly reveal all effects occurring in the field — given that many products need top operate flawlessly at high or low temperatures of hostile environments.

Particularly space-saving, high density, complex designs tend to be more sensitive to tolerances and temperature changes.

SCHMID mme's laboratory is able to simulate most critical environmental conditions — at the same time the device under test connects to power supply and measurement equipment:

Climatic chamber -40 ... +150°C, 20 ... 100% rh (espec)
Infrared camera (FLIR)
Thermometer up to 0.08 K precision (Greisinger)

Quality Management

What if samples from volume production suddenly start deviating from the approved pilot-run sample?

Possibly an assembly error? Procurement has purchased lower quality components? Maybe even a counterfeit chip?

Miniaturized parts usually don't have any marking.
So how to find out?

SCHMID mme laboratory features digital microscopes and component analyzers that not just measure resistance or capacitance, but identify secondary parameters like the dielectric type of a capacitor or the temperature or voltage coefficient of a resistor.