Ridgetop’s SMRT Probe (Sample Mode Response Technique™) 4000 is a resonant voltage-sampling sensor, shown below, that is attached to a module or assembly to extract degradation signatures. SMRT Probe 4000™ monitors power systems by injecting a voltage stimulus to measure effective resistance and capacitance, enabling prognostic and degradation analysis. The system response will change due to loss of filter capacitance, changes in equivalent series resistance (ESR), MOSFET switch degradation, or other electrical degradation. The SMRT Probe sensing technique is based on Ridgetop’s patented RingDown™ technology. The sensor processing unit (SPU) located on the host Sentinel Power™ prognostic analysis platform controls SMRT Probe and processes the data sampled by the probe.
SMRT Probe 4000
The SMRT Probe 4000 software performs a digital signal processing (DSP) analysis of the captured frequency response, including anomaly detection, producing a prognostic signature. SMRT Probe’s time-stamped data output includes 16-bit resistance and 16-bit capacitance measurements.
As part of the Sentinel Power line of advanced diagnostic and prognostic tools, SMRT Probe 4000 sensor data can be supplied to Ridgetop’s Advanced Remaining Useful Life Estimator™ (ARULE™) prognostics analysis software tool to compute state of health (SoH) and remaining useful life (RUL).
Applications
- Power converters and inverters
- Power supplies
- Electromechanical power drive stages, such as electromechanical actuators
- Environmental probes in military and aerospace applications
Product Brief
Brochure
White Papers and Application Note
- AN101: Applying RingDown™ Prognostics to Power Drive Systems
- Pattern Analysis in Real Time with Smart Power Sensor
Related Products
- Sentinel Power™, a product line that includes power signature monitoring sensors, prognostic reasoners, and a visualization tool.
- ARULE, a reasoner to determine the remaining useful life (RUL) and state of health (SoH) of complex systems
- Sentinel Motion™, a product line that includes wireless vibration and motion signature monitoring sensors, prognostic reasoners, and a visualization tool
- Sentinel Interconnect™, a product line that includes embedded monitors for detecting intermittencies and degradation in crucial system interconnects, and a visualization tool
- Sentinel IT™, a product line that provides solutions for improving IT network reliability and network health management (NHM).
Ridgetop is certified as category 1A under the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) as part of the Trusted Supplier Program. Ridgetop has history of designing analog and mixed signal ICs for demanding applications in space satellites that are subjected to extreme temperatures and radiation. Our designs have utilized bulk CMOS, CMOS-SOI, and SiGe at process geometries down to 28 nm channel lengths. Radiation hardness is also a concern, and Ridgetop has addressed those requirements as well. A recent Ridgetop design was delivered to ON Semiconductor for the U.S. Air Force STELLAR Star Tracker.
Under contract to NASA, Ridgetop designed an effective 3-axis wireless rotational sensor. The RotoSense™ sensor has been tested on fast-spinning pinion gears on helicopter gear boxes, and also rolling stock for railroad safety improvements.