New Trazar RF Generator Test Lab
Featured in U.S. Tech
35,000 Engineers and Managers Learn How Trazar Built RF Test Lab
From the Ground Up in March Edition of National Publication
Santa Clara, Calif. -- April 15, 2001 -- Trazar Corp., designer
and manufacturer of automatic impedance matching (AIM) networks
and RF power products, was featured in a special Test Focus section
of the March edition of U.S. Tech, a well-respected national publication
that reaches 35,000 engineers and managers. The article, “Building
an RF Test Lab from the Ground Up,” ran in both the electronic
and print versions of the publication.
Trazar was selected for this feature because it successfully solved
a problem faced by many manufacturers: how to ensure the quality
of a new product when test requirements are radically different
from an existing product line. Trazar’s challenge was even
more daunting as its new product, the Paralax Igniter RF Generator,
required test technicians to work with potentially dangerous power
levels.
With quality and safety as key considerations, Trazar set out
to convert 500-square feet of production floorspace into a test
and burn-in facility. As with any construction project, the company
faced many challenges along the way. For example, the RF generators
under test radiated so much heat that the entire building’s
electrical and cooling systems had to be renovated. In addition
to facilities issues, Trazar’s engineers presented an extensive
test equipment wish list. What they couldn’t buy, they built.
“We needed to simulate fluctuating power conditions to ensure
that the Paralax Igniter would operate reliably in a wide variety
of environments,” explained author Gary Ater, Trazar’s
vice president of sales and marketing. “As there’s
no test equipment on the market that could do exactly what we needed
done, we designed and built our own simulator and christened it
the ‘Trazar Whirlygig’.”
Trazar’s new RF test lab features four test stations and
a burn-in facility with a six-hour certification cycle. Besides
testing RF generators, the lab is also used by the company’s
Semiconductor Products and Specialty Contract Manufacturing (SCM)
Divisions.
“Financially and logistically, our decision to build an
internal test lab was a sound one,” Ater said. “We
can guarantee the quality of our products and we have the flexibility
to ramp up to meet deadlines.”
A text-only version of Trazar’s “Building an RF Test
Lab from the Ground Up” article follows this release. To
view the article as printed with photos in U.S. Tech, go to www.us-tech.com
and click on Back Issues, 2001 March.
Trazar Corporation was founded in 1987 to develop custom automatic
impedance matching networks for research and development projects
in the semiconductor and medical industries. Corporate headquarters
are located at 4255 Burton Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95054-1512, 408-970-9501, Fax 408-970-9503. Web
site: www.trazar.com.
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