May 30, 2018 Siborg Systems Inc's director, Michael Obrecht, interviewed with Manufacturing Today's Kat Zeman about the company's future. Obrecht talked about a new model of the popular multimeter coming in the summer of 2018 and the company's plan to refocus on software.
LCR-Reader is the leading test device from Siborg Systems Inc. Since its debut, its sales have surpassed the Smart Tweezers devices due to its low-price while still offering a 0.5% basic accuracy and high speed while testing. The device will automatically determine the type of component and best test parameters before displaying the results on the OLED display in the device.
Michael Obrecht spoke about a new model that will be released in the summer of 2018. "It will be a much more powerful multimeter, less bulky and more fine tuned. We have improved on the LCR-Reader's appearance performance and functionality." This model will have a higher price, but will offer new features such as a 3-volt LED test and a one-volt signal component testing for ceramic capacitors. The new model will also have a lower signal-to-noise ratio which will improve the devices’ accuracy while testing lower value inductances and capacitances.
Siborg’s LCR-Reader-MP is the newest model available that features the highest basic accuracy of 0.1% and the most features; including a large capacitance test mode, a wider choice of test signals, an oscilloscope mode and more. The oscilloscope mode hasn’t been available since ST-1.
As for their software division, Siborg has plans to refocus, including new ideas for very fast software tools for thermal design. “We want to enhance the functionality of MicroTec, including the thermal analysis built into the semiconductor device simulator. It’s sold to a lot of educational markets and to semiconductor manufacturers.”
MicroTec is a user-friendly semiconductor process and device simulator that is computationally extensive for simulations for power semiconductor devices with large dimensions or solar cells. It is also particularly useful for devices built with SiC and other wide band gap material. MicroTec is easy-to-use and can run on a few megabytes of RAM while still being robust and faster than other similar programs.
The software is currently used by over 35 companies and 100 universities in over 25 countries, it is also a good candidate for small companies. “Maybe our software can do 90% of what they want. Well, we can quickly do a modification to the software and that’s very important to them. Plus, we offer 24/7 support, which is much higher than competitors. We serve pretty much anybody that does work on electronic circuit boards; it is a very wide community.”
Siborg also offers custom software solutions and other test devices; these include a Kelvin Probe Connector set that turns any LCR-Reader or Smart Tweezers device into a full probe station. The kit comes with 5 different attachments and expands the size-range of components the device can test.
They also offer a Bluetooth enabled model of Smart Tweezers that has recently been updated to be able to send and receive data. When connected, the device sends all test results and this data can be saved for later review. The new update allows users to create virtual profiles of component characteristics they want. When the device sends the test results to a PC, Android or iOS device, the receiving software can grant the component a pass or fail. This is a helpful feature for any job requiring incoming quality control.
Visit the LCR-Reader Store for all of Siborg’s hardware solutions and see the interview from Manufacturing Today in Volume 18, Issue 3.
