Date:  Thursday, May 19, 2005

Time:  6:30 to 9:00 pm
Location:  Avaya Auditorium, University of Texas Campus
Topic:  Advances In Test Technology For Metal Cables
Speaker:  Dr. Robert Flake - UT Austin
 

Abstract: 
A new generation of higher resolution TDR instruments for testing signal delay (electrical length) of metal cables is being developed in our laboratory. The instrument has been used to make measurements on an assortment of various cables including coaxial and TWP electrical interconnects. The major advance in precision obtained with this TDR is the result of the discovery of a non sinusoidal signal waveform that does not undergo dispersion during transmission on lossy dispersive transmission line interconnects. This special signal is employed as the test pulse in this new generation of cable TDR’s. Total latency or electrical length measurements (with 10’s of ppm resolution) of cable assemblies have recently been obtained in our laboratory.  This new TDR instrument using the shape preserving signal as the test pulse to measure the electrical length of a metal cable will be experimentally demonstrated during the presentation.
 

Speaker Bio:

Professor Flake has a BS in Engineering Physics, MS in Physics and DSc in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. He teaches courses in Control Systems in the ECE department at The University of Texas at Austin. He has recently focused his research on applications of the non dispersive signal technology described in the talk and is the inventor of several UT patents on this technology.