LB302

The LB302 test system is the most used midsize range version of the LB-300 series. It is designed for development as well as for production. The ‘device under test’ (DUT) is connected with a G12 receiver (Virginia Panel Company), which has a high number of possible contacting and a low transition resistance. Every new test system has the same pinning as it was defined during the process of standardization. This allows it to perform a self-test using a special adapter. In addition, it is also now possible for the adapter manufacturer to build a DUT adapter without knowledge of the test system.

The keyboard drawer is made of hard anodized aluminum and is equipped with an integrated USB hub and a Cherry keyboard with touch-pad. The drawer is mounted under the G12 receiver. The PXI chassis from National Instruments is used as a standard to keep the measurement system compact and expandable. The minimum installation of the PXI chassis is equipped with a DMM and one multiplexer card. The multiplexer is directly connected to the G12 receiver. The assignment of the channels is defined through the wiring inside the adapter. The DMM is connected to the multiplexer as also to the LB302.

The GPIB interface for the operation of the electronic loads and the power supplies is provided by the controller of the National Instruments. The controller also executes the test software which controls the LB302 using the USB interface.

The core of the test system is the load switching unit (LB302).Through practical and structured minimizing of the different bus systems a large part of the cross connections could be eliminated. The Power3 card inside the LB302 system switches the power supply directly onto the DUT, as also to the High-Current bus (HC) and Low-Current (LC) bus. In addition, the card provides 2 shunt blocks for current measurements. The actual measurement is then done inside the NI PXI chassis with its DMM card.

The Power3 card also connects the e-loads to the HC- and LC bus. All other relay cards are assigned to the different modules depending if they can access the LC- or HC bus. Using the relay cards, the DUT can be connected easily to the original loads or dummy loads inside the load box LE302. The wiring complexity was minimized during the design process using an optimized relay matrix. The main advantage of this concept is its flexibility. Furthermore, for the stimulation of the DUT inputs there is an additional parallel bus on the LB990 card available.