ORBCOMM, a global innovator in the industrial Internet of Things (IoT) sector, providing solutions that connect businesses to their assets to deliver increased visibility and operational efficiency used a VNA from Copper Mountain Technologies under their free instrument trial program.
Phil Lafleur and his team of engineers at ORBCOMM needed a VNA solution to help design and verify various IoT devices. Although CMT VNAs were on Phil’s radar as he began the purchasing process, most of his team had never used a VNA from Copper Mountain Technologies. After a successful field trial, they were pleased with the price, performance, and partnership provided by Copper Mountain Technologies and the Cobalt C1409 4-Port 9 GHz Analyzer. They were able to find a single instrument to cover all their VNA measurement needs without breaking the budget.
Phil Lafleur, ORBCOMM’s Vice President of Hardware and his team, is responsible for designing and introducing industrial IoT products to volume production. They use VNAs for various design and verification projects to prepare their products for production. Once an item is produced at volume, these IoT devices and their accessories are used by customers across the globe in applications ranging from transportation and maritime to smart grids and even Covid-19 vaccine transportation. During their upgradation of VNA instrumentation, Phil asked himself what equipment was familiar to his team? Lafleur feels that it is important to get a trial unit in their hands to try before making any decisions. Hence, they took advantage of CMT’s free instrument trials and brought in a 4-Port Cobalt VNA to test drive.
He further added that they were impressed with several aspects of the CMT VNA. They found the user interface and software to be very intuitive and functional. The USB form factor of CMT VNAs separates the measurement module from the processing module to take advantage of continued component and technology innovation. Also, they liked that there is no built-in operating system. They had an analyzer with Windows XP which was a constant point of frustration for their IT department. But now there is no need for us to get IT involved. ORBCOMM was also pleased with how easily the VNA integrated with their Python test automation, “It was a complete drop-in.” Lafleur recounted. “We didn’t have to change a single line in our scripts.”
Once the CMT Analyzer was validated by ORBCOMM’s team of engineers, the final decision came down to price and performance. Ultimately, Lafleur decided on the Cobalt C1409 4-Port 9 GHz Analyzer. Most of ORBCOMM’s projects only require two ports and in the past, Lafleur and his team owned a 2-port VNA and would rent a 4-port instrument as needed.
Click here to apply for a Free Instrument Trial from CMT.
