Winners of 2012 Best in Test Awards announced

10 February 2012 - On the evening of January 31, at a ceremony honoring the test and measurement industry, the editors of Test & Measurement World announced the winners of the 2012 Best in Test awards. The annual awards program, which recognizes excellence in electronics test and measurement, comprises the Best in Test, Test of Time, and Test Engineer of the Year awards.

The awards ceremony took place in Santa Clara, CA, during the 2012 DesignCon show. Patrick Mannion, director of content for T&MW, announced the winners of the 2012 Best in Test and Test of Time product awards, while senior technical editor Martin Rowe presented a plaque to a representative of each winning company. The Best in Test awards recognize innovation in test products that were introduced during the past year; the Test of Time award recognizes a test, measurement, or inspection product that continues to provide state-of-the-art service more than five years after its introduction.

T&MW announced the finalists for these awards on November 1 and invited readers to vote for the winners. The Test Product of the Year is the Best in Test award that receives the most overall votes.

The winners of the 2012 Best in Test awards are:

ATE/Production Test: RFEM, Aeroflex

Bus and Logic Analyzers: Beagle USB 5000 SuperSpeed Protocol Analyzer, Total Phase

Data Acquisition: USB-2408 Series, Measurement Computing

Design for Test/Boundary Scan: SFX-TAP16/G, GOEPEL electronic

Embedded Test: TR5001T Tiny ICT, Test Research

Functional Test: TOSCA Testsuite, TRICENTIS Technology & Consulting

LTE Test: VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator, Spirent Communications

Machine Vision/Inspection: TR7600 SII Automated X-Ray Inspection System, Test Research

Multimeters: iDVM iPhone and iPad Enabled Wireless Multimeter, Redfish Instruments

Optical and Network Testers: IxLoad Attack, Ixia

Oscilloscopes: MDO4000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope, Tektronix

PHY Test: PVA-3000 PhyView Analyzer, Sifos Technologies

RF/Microwave Test: URT-5000 Software Defined RF Player and Signal Generator, Averna

Semiconductor Test: T5773 NAND Flash Package Tester, Advantest

Signal Analyzers: PXIe-5665 VSA, National Instruments

Signal Sources: M8190A Arbitrary Waveform Generator, Agilent Technologies

Source-Measure Instruments: B2900A Series Precision Source/Measure Unit, Agilent Technologies

The 2012 Test Product of the Year is the MDO4000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope from Tektronix. The MDO4000 is the first oscilloscope on the market to include a built-in spectrum analyzer that allows design engineers to look at time-correlated analog, digital, serial, and RF data and gain a complete system view of their devices.

The 2012 Test of Time award winner is Spirent TestCenter from Spirent Communications, a unified performance test platform that can sustain growth across many fast-growing industries, including virtualization, cloud computing, mobile backhaul, enhanced packet core, and high-speed Ethernet. Introduced in 2005, TestCenter is employed by network equipment manufacturers, service providers, and enterprises that are employing the Layer 2-7 IP and Ethernet technologies required to deliver any application over any network and on any device.

After the product awards, Mannion announced the recipient of the 2012 Test Engineer of the Year award. This award honors a single engineer for his or her contributions to the art of test. The 2012 Test Engineer of the Year is Brad Davis of Broadcom, who was instrumental in the success of the BCM4330 wireless combo chip that Broadcom introduced in February 2011. As part of his award, Davis will designate an engineering program to receive a $10,000 educational grant courtesy of National Instruments, the award sponsor.