Technology ´88: instrumentation

1987´s new measuring instruments are reviewed. Many provided radical improvements in precision through such technology as superconducting Josephson junctions and application-specific ICs. Other products, from very-large-scale-integrated testers to signal processors, continued a trend toward integrating numerous measurement capabilities in one system. Most of the year´s products were microprocessor controlled, and many worked off a personal computer. An expert opinion is offered by Fred L. Katzmann, president of Ballantine Laboratories Inc., who discusses the increasing accuracy of calibration standards.<>