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T&M: Prepare now for the world beyond Coronavirus

Manufacturing has emerged as one of the high growth sectors in India. The government has launched various programs to place India on the world map as a manufacturing hub and give global recognition to the Indian economy. At this point Test and Measurement equipment becomes very crucial. It provides comprehensive solutions for production, manufacturing, testing, quality control and R&D.

The Test and Measurement equipment market is growing due to the increasing demand in end-use sectors, such as automotive & transportation, aerospace & defense, IT & telecommunications, education & government, semiconductor & electronics, industrial and healthcare. Though the industry witnessed halt due to Covid-19 globally during the last 8-9 months. The report is based on the inputs from the industry’s leading spokespersons and delineates the current market situations and reflects the industry barometer for future growth.

Covid-19 and beyond:

Covid-19 has impacted all businesses globally including the test and measurement industry. The pandemic has given opportunity to look beyond the current business operation model and think about the future as Anritsu has been supporting its customer remotely before Covid-19 on demand basis and now remote support to application and operational training got better acceptance at customer end. The moral says we need to live a new normal and follow best practices for a safer society.

Lockdowns reduced the field time and opportunities. GWI expects business to roll back to normalcy in the next two years and possibly see some growth with the initiatives being proposed. Tektronix is adapting and changing to operate their business to support their customers as they manage through the effects of COVID-19. Rohde & Schwarz confirms the contingency plans and special measures are equal to the exceptional demands that this situation generates. There are new enabling technologies which help staff work remotely from their home offices. Also the products have been evolving towards remote operation scenarios – software-defined solutions, which help customers to work remotely and enable service teams to support them remotely.

Self-Reliant India and T&M companies

Anritsu states that the Government of India move for Self-Reliant India’ is really a good step and this has given new hopes to industry. 16 Mobile handset manufacturing plants have been approved by the government recently for production linked incentives. Many start-ups are being supported by Government funding. These initiatives will create demand for test and measurement instruments and grow business. 5G R&D is picking up in India and this is leading to demand of 5G R&D Test & Measuring instruments.

Rohde & Schwarz not only encourage new approaches and ways of thinking, they give their developers the freedom to reach for the previously unthinkable solutions that revolutionize the market and bring the customers sustained benefit. GW Instek expects some growth in revenues and in the longer time frame the company may want to invest in manufacturing. Tektronix has already made India its R & D hub and is keen on working with the people and the country likewise. The centre here is playing an increasingly critical role in the development of global products which have the opportunity to have a big impact on technological innovations around the world.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced that it has signed an agreement to invest in the Nippon India Digital Innovation Fund of Funds to accelerate its business expansion in India. Yokogawa will pursue open innovation with promising Indian start-up companies and acquire leading-edge technologies and information at an early stage to support the development of new businesses. The investment in the FoF is expected to provide access to the latest information on hundreds of leading start-ups, create opportunities for alliances, enable the transformation of existing businesses and entry into new markets, and accelerate innovation through the acquisition of advanced technologies. Regional subsidiary Yokogawa Technology Solutions India will develop relationships with the start-ups, and opportunities will be leveraged across the entire Group.

Growth prospects for T&M companies:

Traditionally Anritsu is doing well in the segments such as education, Aerospace & Defence and telecommunication. From R&D prospective Anritsu is doing well in the 5G and 4G Telecom ecosystem (Handset, CPE and Antenna) and for handheld products the company has a leading Aerospace & Defence market and expanding reach in the educational market as well. Anritsu sees significant demand in automotive electronics testing as well.

Goodwill Instruments sees tremendous growth in Industrial, Automotive, Education, Electronics and Semiconductors space. Tektronix is leading in all sectors like Automotive, Industrial, Education, Electronics & Semiconductors, Healthcare and IT & Telecommunications. For Yokogawa Automotive, aerospace & defence, electronics & semiconductors, industrial and IT & telecommunication are the growth areas.

Latest multipurpose test equipment:

Anritsu has RF MW Optical Ethernet technologies test and measurement solution. Most of the products are multipurpose instruments and acknowledged as standards for a variety of applications. Some of are listed here which focus on Wireless and Wired Testing:

MS2090A- Field master Pro: Anritsu’s Field Master Pro MS2090A real time spectrum analyzer delivers performance never previously available in a compact, handheld instrument. With continuous frequency coverage from 9 kHz to 54 GHz, the Field Master Pro MS2090A is specifically designed to meet the test challenges of a full range of other wireless technologies in use today, including: 5G, LTE, wireless backhaul, aerospace/defense, satellite systems, and radar.

MS2090A- Field master Pro: Anritsu

Anritsu’s MT1000A- Network Master Pro: All-in-one portable tester with excellent expandability and operability for 10/100G, OTDR and CPRI tests. The all-in-one design supports 5G base-station interface eCPRI/RoE throughput and delay measurements as well as high-accuracy time synchronization tests. MT1000A consist of various modules such as: OTDR Module, Transport 10G module, Transport 100G module and CPRI RF module which makes this instrument a truly Multipurpose instrument support legacy SDH PDH to 10G/100G Ethernet OTN network. 2G 3G or 4 G and today 5G wired network measurement are possible with Network Master Pro MT1000A.

MT8870A (Anritsu): The Universal Wireless Test Set MT8870A has been specifically designed for the high-volume manufacturing test of cellular and connectivity wireless devices and modules supporting 5G NR sub-6GHz, LTE, LTE-V2X, NB-IoT, Cat-M, V2X 802.11p, WLAN and Bluetooth etc.

MT8870A, Anritsu

Rohde & Schwarz is a leading supplier of solutions in the fields of test and measurement, broadcast and media, aerospace, defense, security and networks and cybersecurity. It is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic test and measurement equipment. The products set standards in research, development, production and service. As a key partner of industry and network operators, the company offers a broad spectrum of market-leading solutions for the newest wireless technologies as well as for RF and microwave applications up to 500 GHz.

GW Instek began as a manufacturer of power supplies and expanded into the development of high precision electronic test and measurement instruments. The Product portfolio includes Oscilloscopes, Signal/Function Generators, Power Supply / DC Electronic Load, Spectrum Analyzers, Digital Millimeters, LCR meters, Safety Testers and Other Meters.

Tektronix is a measurement insight company that designs and manufactures test and measurement solutions to break through the walls of complexity, and accelerate global innovation. The company empowers engineers to create and realize technological advances with ever greater ease, speed and accuracy.

Yokogawa has been developing measurement solutions for nearly 100 years, consistently finding new ways to give R&D teams the tools they need to gain the best insights from their measurement strategies as well as offering a wide ranging product line-up and an extensive range of calibration and other services, the company has pioneered accurate power measurement throughout its history, and is the market leader in digital power analyzers.

Yokogawa instruments are renowned for maintaining high levels of precision and for continuing to deliver value for far longer than the typical shelf-life of such equipment. Yokogawa believes that precise and effective measurement lies at the heart of successful innovation – and has focused its own R&D on providing the tools that researchers and engineers need to address challenges great and small.

Innovative product and tests they perform

• Anritsu:Field Master Pro MS2090A instrument gives field engineers and technicians unparalleled measurement accuracy previously reserved for only benchtop instruments.
• Interference hunting and spectrum clearing networks– fast sweep speeds, low distortion front-end, and spectrogram display help deploy new networks efficiently, ensuring spectrums are clear and validating that all legacy users have stopped all transmission.
• Broadcast transmitter analysis– a comprehensive range of transmitter measurements – including harmonic, spurious, occupied bandwidth, channel power, and adjacent channel power – ensures conformity to regulatory requirements.
• Microwave radio links– with a frequency option up to 54 GHz and exceptional sensitivity for dish alignment, power and modulation bandwidth can be verified during installation or maintenance testing with a waveguide horn antenna.
• Satellite system monitoring– ideal for monitoring downlink signals to search for interference and noise
• Pulse Radar Measurements– The wide bandwidth of the MS2090A enables detailed analysis of pulsed radar signals. In zero span, resolution bandwidth can be set as high as 40 MHz (option dependent), enabling a sweep time as low as 60 ns and amplitude measurements of pulses as narrow as 20 ns.
• 5GNR base station measurement– validate the performance of the gNB base station with essential measurements that are in full compliance with 3GPP TS 38.104 V15.
• 5G coverage mapping– receive a clear representation of the signal strength of 5G transmitters over intended geographic area by continuously measuring RF data – including 5G channel power, EIRP, or RSRP – with results graphically displayed on a digital map or building floor plan.

Innovative products from Rohde & Schwarz:

• R&SATS1800C CATR based 5G NR mmWave test chamber:3GPP compliant and transportable far-field (CATR) OTA test system, State-of-the-art CATR reflector, Unparalleled quiet zone size of 30 cm with a footprint of 1.3 m2 , Wide frequency range including major 5G FR2 frequency bands, High shielding effectiveness of >90 dB.
• R&SUPV Audio Analyzer:Suitable for all interfaces (analog, digital and combined), Simultaneous display of multiple measurement functions, Sampling rate up to 400 kHz.
• R&SBBL200 Broadband Amplifier:Frequency range from 9 kHz to 225 MHz, 3000 W, 5000 W and 10 000 W output power, 100 % mismatch tolerance.
• R&SETC compact TV analyser, Economical TV transmitter testing:Support of DVB-T2, DVB-T/DVB-H and ISDB-T digital TV standards, Wide frequency range up to 3.6 GHz or 8 GHz, Precision MER measurement in realtime (typ. 44 dB at 500 MHz), Wide input level range from –76 dBm to +10 dBm. Spectrum analyzer DANL of typ. –165 dBm (1 Hz).
• HMC8012 Digital Multimeter: Measurement range:DC to 100 kHz, Resolution: 1 μV, 100 nA, 1 mΩ, 1 pF, 1 Hz, 0.1 °C/F, Basic accuracy: 0.015 % (DC).

Goodwill Instrument’s Spectrum Analyzers performs EMC Pretest solutions, RF Modulation analysis and RF components testing; Power Supplies/eLoad: Automotive test Solutions, High voltage Capacitor testing, Relay testing and Burn in Test in Manufacturing; Lora Test Solutions: Lora Chip testing in the Long Range communication mainly targeted in M2M and IoT networks; Multi-Channel Safety Testers: Mainly used in testing components like Capacitor, Inductors , wires and multi-step safety testing requirement for modules, transformers and motors which reduce the testing risk of customer operation line change; Power Electronic Training System: It is the most ideal system for electronics students, teachers and researchers to conduct hand-on operation verification.