Laboratory Measurements & Testing

During the course of project, it will be necessary to test various aspects of the circuit design. Testing involves verification of circuit performance to make sure the circuit behaves as expected. Measurements are collected under various conditions such as temperature extremes, supply voltage variations, response to external stimuli, electromagnetic interference (EMI), etc. Sometimes preliminary measurements and testing are performed on individually isolated circuits to verify operation prior to integration with other circuits on the prototype board to minimize risk. As an example, a new Point-of-Load (POL) DC-DC buck regulator circuit is being considered to supply a core voltage of 0.85V to an expensive Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). It is advisable to verify proper operation prior to actually applying the output voltage of the new POL regulator to the FPGA. Verification of power supplies prior to application of the various loads can help avoid the hassles associated with having to replace expensive and difficult to rework components such as FPGAs, processors. ASICs, etc.