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Analog Devices Reduces Exposure to Unplanned Operating Expenditures ADI Improves Instrument Health Using Keysight PathWave Asset Advisor Software

Test equipment (e.g., an oscilloscope, network analyzer or spectrum analyzer)

makes up a large portion of a company’s financial investment. That investment

comprises both the equipment’s capital expense (CapEx) and it’s associated

operating expense (OpEx)—the cost of keeping a piece of equipment over its

useful life (e.g., general maintenance, calibration, repair, depreciation, and other

overhead). One factor that can dramatically impact an instrument’s OpEx is the

environmental conditions in which the equipment operates.

Over/under voltage or high operating temperatures can lead to a number of

undesirable effects, including premature failures and risk of poor measurements.

At higher operating temperatures, for example, equipment specifications may

degrade and its components may age at a faster rate. The impact is dramatic:

frequent calibration intervals, a shorter overall life, and the potential for increased

failures requiring more repairs over the instrument’s life. Unless the true health of

an asset is tracked over time, it’s impossible to know whether equipment is falling

prey to such issues. This leaves equipment owners less able to make informed

program decisions and vulnerable to rising operating expenses.

Unbeknownst to Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI)—a world leader in the design,

manufacture, and marketing of a broad portfolio of high performance analog,

mixed-signal, and digital signal processing (DSP) integrated circuits—it faced just

this scenario. To resolve the issue, ADI turned to Keysight Technologies, Inc.,

Company:• Analog Devices Incorporated

Key Issue:• Accurately monitor and

track instrument health

Solution:• Monitored real-time

health parameters in test equipment using PathWave Asset Advisor software

Results:• Identified equipment with

low humidity environment readings

• Mitigated poor cooling/venting to bring equipment back into normal operating conditions

C A S E S T U D Y

Page 2This information is subject to change without notice. © Keysight Technologies, 2018, Published in USA, December 5, 2018, 5992-2776EN

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Learn more at: www.keysight.com

For more information on Keysight Technologies’ products, applications or services,

please contact your local Keysight office. The complete list is available at:

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and its PathWave Asset Advisor software, a solution designed to significantly

improve asset productivity sitting at the core of Keysight’s Test Asset Optimization

Services portfolio.

Key Issue

The primary challenge ADI faced was not being able to properly monitor the health of

its test equipment when it suspected a problem with high operating temperatures of

some instruments. High operating temperatures can lead to a number of undesirable

effects, including premature failures and risk of poor measurements. Additionally,

equipment specifications may degrade and components may age at a faster rate. In

addition, test equipment residing in low humidity environments can pose an especially

troublesome issue resulting in increased sensitivity to static electricity. At very low

humidity, around 3%, instruments can sustain damage from static discharge. The

damage can occur during instrument handling, such as when equipment is taken

out of a rack and transported for calibration or repair.

Solution

Dealing with this challenge first required ADI to know that it even existed. Fortunately,

ADI has a long-standing relationship with Keysight, routinely using Keysight instruments

to test its products. One Keysight product ADI was considering using was PathWave

Asset Advisor. The software’s ability to monitor an instrument’s health parameters in

real-time made it the ideal solution for flagging potential issues like over/under voltage

or high operating temperatures. With PathWave Asset Advisor in place, Keysight

noticed that some ADI test assets were reporting high internal temperature readings,

as well as residing in low humidity environments, and alerted ADI to the situation.

Results

Keysight discussed its temperature findings with ADI, who confirmed that the

anomalous readings were due to a heat flow issue. ADI then took immediate action

to mitigate the poor cooling/ventilation situation and brought the equipment back into

normal operating conditions.

www.keysight.com/find/AssetOptimization

““We are grateful to Keysight for alerting us to a potential temperature issue with our instrument. Without this information, we might have faced a problem that would not only drive up our OpEx, but also result in a time-to-market delay.”

- Tony Giannasca

Analog Devices Incorporated

Development Site Service

Manager