Siborg Systems Inc Featured in Manufacturing Today; LCR-Reader Devices on Sale
Siborg's director outlines the future of LCR-Reader including a new model and refocusing on their software division.
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, May 31, 2018 --(PR.com)-- Siborg Systems Inc. interviewed with Kat Zeman of Manufacturing Today about Siborg’s future. Michael Obrecht, the company’s director, spoke about a new model of the popular LCR-Reader releasing in 2018 and how the company is refocusing on their software.
LCR-Reader LCR- and ESR-meter is a fully automatic multimeter with a 0.5% basic accuracy and high-speed component identification and testing. The lightweight device will automatically determine the type of component when held between the gold-plated tweezers. The device displays all information, including component type, test frequency, main impedance value and any secondary values, such as the ESR, instantaneously on a built in OLED display. The device comes with an NIST traceable calibration certificate.
LCR-Reader quickly surpassed the Smart Tweezers devices as Siborg’s best selling test tool; this popularity was in part of the low cost. Michael Obrecht speaks of a new model of the device that will be available in the summer of 2018. “It will be a much more powerful multimeter, less bulky and more fine tuned. We have improved on the LCR-Reader’s appearance, performance and functionality.” The device will have a higher price than the LCR-Reader-MP, but will have more features, including a one-volt signal component testing for ceramic capacitors and a three-volt LED test mode. The device will also have a lower signal-to-noise ratio which will improve accuracy while testing lower value capacitance and inductances.
Obrecht speaks about Siborg refocusing on the software side of the company, “In a way, our hardware killed our software. We have a couple ideas for new, very fast software tools for thermal design. We want to enhance the functionality of MicroTec including the thermal analysis built into the semiconductor device simulator. It’s sold to a lot of educational markets and to semiconductor manufacturers.”
MicroTec is a semiconductor process and device simulator used by over 100 universities and 35 companies worldwide. It is an easy-to-use, computationally extensive program for simulations for power semiconductor devices with large dimensions or solar cells. It is also particularly useful for devices built with SiC and other wide band gap material. It combines 3 main software tools (SemSim, SiDif and SibGraf) and is great for prototyping, says Obrecht. “They do the simulation first and then if the resulting semiconductor device is not operating correctly, they can modify the virtual fabrication process. This is very similar to the actual fab environment where test runs are done routinely, but it does not cost much money to make a virtual iteration unlike the real fab test run.” The program is also faster and more robust and can run on only a few megabytes of RAM, unlike other similar programs.
Siborg’s director goes on to talk about the company’s ability to create custom software tools and the ability to quickly modify MicroTec for customers. “We serve pretty much anybody that does work on electronic circuit boards. It’s a very wide community. Smaller companies are an ideal choice for MicroTec. Maybe it can do 90% of what they want. Well, we can quickly do modifications to the software and that’s very important to them. Plus, we offer 24/7 software support, which is a much higher level than our competitors.”
Siborg also offers SibLin, a linear solver for matrices arising in 2-D and 3-D finite difference solutions of various partial differential equations such as Poisson, heat transfer and diffusion-drift.
Some of the other hardware Siborg offers is the Kelvin Probe Connector kit which turns any LCR-Reader, LCR-Reader-MP or Smart Tweezers device into a full probe station and allows the multimeter to measure components larger than the tweezers would normally allow. This kit comes with 5 different attachments (2 sizes of pin-probes, multimeter jack plugs, spade connector and alligator clips). It is particularly useful when used with MP’s oscilloscope mode which allows users to measure different wave-forms at various nodes on a PCB.
Siborg also offers a Bluetooth model of Smart Tweezers that is able to connect with computers, Android and iOS devices. When a measurement is done, the device will send a comma separated chain of values representing what the device has identified, including main and secondary impedance values, test frequency, mode, component type, etc. This information can be received by different programs and, depending on the program, can be saved to a file, database or other for later review. This is a helpful feature for incoming quality control. An update to the device last year allows for information to be sent and received to and from the Smart Tweezers. With this, users can create custom profiles that set limits; when a component is tested, the program will determine if it fits the profile and can issue a pass or fail.
Visit the LCR-Reader Store to see all of the hardware Siborg System Inc. offers and to take part of the promotional sale. The interview is published in Manufacturing Today, Volume 18, Issue 3.
LCR-Reader LCR- and ESR-meter is a fully automatic multimeter with a 0.5% basic accuracy and high-speed component identification and testing. The lightweight device will automatically determine the type of component when held between the gold-plated tweezers. The device displays all information, including component type, test frequency, main impedance value and any secondary values, such as the ESR, instantaneously on a built in OLED display. The device comes with an NIST traceable calibration certificate.
LCR-Reader quickly surpassed the Smart Tweezers devices as Siborg’s best selling test tool; this popularity was in part of the low cost. Michael Obrecht speaks of a new model of the device that will be available in the summer of 2018. “It will be a much more powerful multimeter, less bulky and more fine tuned. We have improved on the LCR-Reader’s appearance, performance and functionality.” The device will have a higher price than the LCR-Reader-MP, but will have more features, including a one-volt signal component testing for ceramic capacitors and a three-volt LED test mode. The device will also have a lower signal-to-noise ratio which will improve accuracy while testing lower value capacitance and inductances.
Obrecht speaks about Siborg refocusing on the software side of the company, “In a way, our hardware killed our software. We have a couple ideas for new, very fast software tools for thermal design. We want to enhance the functionality of MicroTec including the thermal analysis built into the semiconductor device simulator. It’s sold to a lot of educational markets and to semiconductor manufacturers.”
MicroTec is a semiconductor process and device simulator used by over 100 universities and 35 companies worldwide. It is an easy-to-use, computationally extensive program for simulations for power semiconductor devices with large dimensions or solar cells. It is also particularly useful for devices built with SiC and other wide band gap material. It combines 3 main software tools (SemSim, SiDif and SibGraf) and is great for prototyping, says Obrecht. “They do the simulation first and then if the resulting semiconductor device is not operating correctly, they can modify the virtual fabrication process. This is very similar to the actual fab environment where test runs are done routinely, but it does not cost much money to make a virtual iteration unlike the real fab test run.” The program is also faster and more robust and can run on only a few megabytes of RAM, unlike other similar programs.
Siborg’s director goes on to talk about the company’s ability to create custom software tools and the ability to quickly modify MicroTec for customers. “We serve pretty much anybody that does work on electronic circuit boards. It’s a very wide community. Smaller companies are an ideal choice for MicroTec. Maybe it can do 90% of what they want. Well, we can quickly do modifications to the software and that’s very important to them. Plus, we offer 24/7 software support, which is a much higher level than our competitors.”
Siborg also offers SibLin, a linear solver for matrices arising in 2-D and 3-D finite difference solutions of various partial differential equations such as Poisson, heat transfer and diffusion-drift.
Some of the other hardware Siborg offers is the Kelvin Probe Connector kit which turns any LCR-Reader, LCR-Reader-MP or Smart Tweezers device into a full probe station and allows the multimeter to measure components larger than the tweezers would normally allow. This kit comes with 5 different attachments (2 sizes of pin-probes, multimeter jack plugs, spade connector and alligator clips). It is particularly useful when used with MP’s oscilloscope mode which allows users to measure different wave-forms at various nodes on a PCB.
Siborg also offers a Bluetooth model of Smart Tweezers that is able to connect with computers, Android and iOS devices. When a measurement is done, the device will send a comma separated chain of values representing what the device has identified, including main and secondary impedance values, test frequency, mode, component type, etc. This information can be received by different programs and, depending on the program, can be saved to a file, database or other for later review. This is a helpful feature for incoming quality control. An update to the device last year allows for information to be sent and received to and from the Smart Tweezers. With this, users can create custom profiles that set limits; when a component is tested, the program will determine if it fits the profile and can issue a pass or fail.
Visit the LCR-Reader Store to see all of the hardware Siborg System Inc. offers and to take part of the promotional sale. The interview is published in Manufacturing Today, Volume 18, Issue 3.
Contact
Siborg Systems Inc.
Michael Obrecht
519-888-9906
www.siborg.com
Michael Obrecht
519-888-9906
www.siborg.com
Contact
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