Research And Realization On Signal-oriented Instrumental Control Technology

Instrument-oriented is an important development characteristic of traditional Automatic Test System(ATS) test environment. It results in a poor universality of test system which primarily manifested in two aspects: the test instruments are not interchangeable and the Test Program Sets(TPS) are not transplantable, and this largely augments the development and maintenance expenses of the ATS. The industry proposed the notion of signal-oriented ATS to solve these problems, attempting to achieve the universality of the test system from the viewpoint of the overall structure of the software platform and the standardization of system resource information.The paper analyzed the limitations of instrument-oriented ATS and the advantages of signal-oriented ATS, studied the relevant standards and key technologies which need to be used to achieve the signal-oriented ATS, and then designed and implemented the key modules of the ATS software platform. The paper mainly studied the following three aspects:1. Propose the implementation method of instrument IVI-Signal driver based on IVI driver mode by analyzing the overall design of the ATS software platform, quoting IEEE1641 Signal and Test Definition(STD) standard, drawing lessons from IVI(Interchangeable Virtual Instrument) instrument class driver ideas and referring to the signal-oriented thoughts of IVI-SD.2. Implement the IVI-Signal driver of function generator, programmable power supply, high-speed digital IO and multi-function protocol module after analyzing the signal capacity and associated control functions of these instruments and completing the test instrument modeling which has close contaction with the instrument IVI-Signal driver.3. Study and implement the control which displays the waveform of analog signals, the user can analyze the resulting data of analog signals measured by the test system even better by using this control. The control has the function of displaying waveform of signals, measuring amplitude and frequency of signals, locally amplifying the signals and AC/DC coupling. The control is independent of instruments so that you can use this control regardless of which kind of instruments that measure analog signals the system will replace and regardless of the manufacturers and models of the instruments in the system. It solves the problem that the panel which displays the waveform of analog signals needs to be replaced when adding acquisition equipments of analog signals and achieves a better implementation of the instrument’s interchangeability.