TSP

In this episode Shahriar investigates an Agilent E4981A high-speed capacitance meter which fails self-test during startup. The instrument reports a series of errors associated with the CPU board. The teardown reveals a multi-board construction where the main analog assembly employs an FPGA for control and interface to the main CPU board. The unit has a disconnected ribbon cable between the analog board and the main CPU assembly. After correcting the problem the instrument completes self-test without errors.

After the repair the unit is used to measure several known capacitors for functionality verification. Finally the instrument is used to measure a hand-made parallel plate capacitor. The capacitor can accept various types of dielectric material whose impact is studied.

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