Gary Raposa
Agilent Technologies

Programmable system DC power supplies in the 500 W to 2 kW power range are used in a variety of industries such as automotive, aerospace/defense, telecom, and component test. Applications using these sources include testing of control modules for cars and aircraft, satellite heaters, and base station amplifiers, as well as burn-in of devices such as laser diodes and memory chips. In an effort to reduce both the cost of test system development and the actual cost of test itself, test engineers in these industries are demanding more power in less space, faster programming and response time, and more flexible power supplies. System DC power supply manufacturers have responded by providing smaller, faster, and more capable sources.