Agilent Instrument Design Validation and Recommended Calibration Policy - White Paper 5991-1314EN c20140528 free download

File name Instrument Design Validation and Recommended Calibration Policy - White Paper 5991-1314EN c20140528

Keysight Technologies Instrument Design Validation and Recommended Calibration Policy White Paper Introduction What are Keysight Technologies, Inc. policies regarding the design of the recommended performance test published in our Service Manuals? Why should users have confidence in the overall performance of the instrument, even for functions and ranges that don't seem to be included in the calibration procedure? Although the following article addresses these questions from the perspective of the manufacturing division responsible for digital multimeters, the general principles also apply to other product-types. Digital Multimeter Adjustment and Verification Procedures From time to time, customers or calibration laboratories may inquire about why specific adjustment and verification points or procedures are selected for a given instrument model. This discussion is intended to provide general back- ground information with respect to the methods and philosophies that Keysight Technologies utilizes when specifying these aspects of individual product service procedures. Calibration and verification procedures documented in the Keysight Service Guide are created and reviewed by design, service, and quality engineers and incorporate our detailed, proprietary knowledge of the DMM's internal hardware and software design and sources of measurement error. Development of procedures and selection of verification test points is based upon our extensive statistical analysis of both characterization data gathered during design verifica- tion testing and through on-going monitoring of production processes. During Keysight manufacturing, significantly more verification data are gathered and used to monitor product performance and to assure our outgoing product qual- ity. The documented user procedures completely describe all steps required to fully adjust an instrument to conform to its published accuracy specifications. Philosophically, Keysight verification procedures are designed to achieve > 99% confidence that the instrument conforms to all published measurement specifi- cations and that it is fully functional for use. This high level of user verification confidence is achieved by a multi-tiered approach as described below. First, all accuracy verification procedures are preceded by checking basic opera- tional readiness through executing the instruments internal Self-Test procedure. This checks internal circuit paths for functional operation and is intended to assure, with > 90% confidence, that the instrument has not experienced a hardware failure and "should be expected" to meet all published measurement specifications -- if the specified adjustment procedures have been followed previously. Some non-measurement, user accessible, functionality (e.g. display, keyboard, computer interface, etc.) cannot be completely verified by Self-Test and are generally not addressed by measurement verification procedures. Certain