Wedge Z axis

[Bruce Billett]

As a matter of fact I frequently visited surplus gizmos when Maxim had a facility located on the corner of Evergreen and Cornelius Pass. They moved their domestic ATE stuff there, along with the FA lab I worked in. It was a royal pain in the butt to move the lab, Maxim -- like usual -- lowballed the cost for doing the move. We ended up renting some U-Haul trucks to move some of our lab equipment. Maxim ended up re-consolidating everything after they expanded the fab in Beaverton. I helped move our FA equipment _back_ and then said "goodbye" to the lab.

That was 9-3/4 years ago. We're still living a little south of Portland between Tualatin and Lake Oswego.

I'm out in Mac Now. Retired from intel after 35. Worked for solar world for a bit.
You got any use for some micro positioners? Sort of beam steering sort of thing? I got a bunch I know I will never use, Your welcome to them if you want.

 

[Bruce Billett]

As a matter of fact I frequently visited surplus gizmos when Maxim had a facility located on the corner of Evergreen and Cornelius Pass. They moved their domestic ATE stuff there, along with the FA lab I worked in. It was a royal pain in the butt to move the lab, Maxim -- like usual -- lowballed the cost for doing the move. We ended up renting some U-Haul trucks to move some of our lab equipment. Maxim ended up re-consolidating everything after they expanded the fab in Beaverton. I helped move our FA equipment _back_ and then said "goodbye" to the lab.

That was 9-3/4 years ago. We're still living a little south of Portland between Tualatin and Lake Oswego.

Oh yea. I forget. What were they building at Maxim? I assume analog sort of stuff? Didn't look like digital equipment as I recall.

 

[homebrewed]

Oh yea. I forget. What were they building at Maxim? I assume analog sort of stuff? Didn't look like digital equipment as I recall.

Maxim actually designed and made all manner of devices -- pure analog, pure digital and mixed-signal. Later RF products had a heavy digital component since they used on-chip frequency synthesizers. Some of them used fractional-N synthesizers that dithered the division ratio so well that they could achieve sub-Hz resolution at GHz frequencies. They required a pretty darned good loop filter to avoid nasty spurs. They often were so-called zero IF transceivers -- same thing as a direct conversion transceiver -- and the IF filters were done on-chip using special active circuit blocks to make capacitors look like inductors.

 

[homebrewed]

I'm out in Mac Now. Retired from intel after 35. Worked for solar world for a bit.
You got any use for some micro positioners? Sort of beam steering sort of thing? I got a bunch I know I will never use, Your welcome to them if you want.

IIRC Solar World wasn't too far from the Evergreen campus (and Intel).

I'm not sure what I would use micro positioners for now. I've got left-over things from my Tek and Maxim days that are sitting around waiting for some use to pop up: but right now I have no idea what I would use them for. Only time will tell I guess.

 

[Bruce Billett]

Maxim actually designed and made all manner of devices -- pure analog, pure digital and mixed-signal. Later RF products had a heavy digital component since they used on-chip frequency synthesizers. Some of them used fractional-N synthesizers that dithered the division ratio so well that they could achieve sub-Hz resolution at GHz frequencies. They required a pretty darned good loop filter to avoid nasty spurs. They often were so-called zero IF transceivers -- same thing as a direct conversion transceiver -- and the IF filters were done on-chip using special active circuit blocks to make capacitors look like inductors.

From a chip design standpoint, that sounds like an interesting place to work. I was always pretty interested in the analog half of the universe. Despite what intel says, I never believed in the digital world.

 

[Bruce Billett]

IIRC Solar World wasn't too far from the Evergreen campus (and Intel).

I'm not sure what I would use micro positioners for now. I've got left-over things from my Tek and Maxim days that are sitting around waiting for some use to pop up: but right now I have no idea what I would use them for. Only time will tell I guess.

Yea, they are their own special place in the world.
Since you have left overs from those places, you would happen to have any Mu-metal laying around you would care to part with?

 

[homebrewed]

Yea, they are their own special place in the world.
Since you have left overs from those places, you would happen to have any Mu-metal laying around you would care to part with?

Unfortunately I don't have any from those days. I wish I had thought of it at the time -- the Tek "Country Store" probably had stacks of CRT permalloy shielding for pennies on the dollar. I do have some I bought from ebay for a project I'm working on but I don't know exactly how much I will need. It's about a 12"x12" sheet. I've been (very slowly) working on some ideas for a low-mag-field NMR setup, with the ultimate goal of being able to perform NMR spectroscopy. That is a VERY tall lift for a hobbyist, even for someone with a decent background in analog circuit design. Signal levels are low, and easily contaminated by all the 60Hz stuff in the environment. The mu metal may work for blocking that low-frequency stuff (the skin depth @60Hz in aluminum is on the order of 1 centimeter). Skin depth is inversely proportional to the material's permeability so something like mu metal, whose permeability can range from 80E3 to 3.5E5 times higher than aluminum, is much, much better for keeping out 60Hz noise.

FYI, a quick search through ebay found a 8.675" x 6.375" x .0095 piece for $18.95. Are you wanting to shield a PMT or something else?

 

[Bruce Billett]

Unfortunately I don't have any from those days. I wish I had thought of it at the time -- the Tek "Country Store" probably had stacks of CRT permalloy shielding for pennies on the dollar. I do have some I bought from ebay for a project I'm working on but I don't know exactly how much I will need. It's about a 12"x12" sheet. I've been (very slowly) working on some ideas for a low-mag-field NMR setup, with the ultimate goal of being able to perform NMR spectroscopy. That is a VERY tall lift for a hobbyist, even for someone with a decent background in analog circuit design. Signal levels are low, and easily contaminated by all the 60Hz stuff in the environment. The mu metal may work for blocking that low-frequency stuff (the skin depth @60Hz in aluminum is on the order of 1 centimeter). Skin depth is inversely proportional to the material's permeability so something like mu metal, whose permeability can range from 80E3 to 3.5E5 times higher than aluminum, is much, much better for keeping out 60Hz noise.

FYI, a quick search through ebay found a 8.675" x 6.375" x .0095 piece for $18.95. Are you wanting to shield a PMT or something else?

I have some now. Was reading something about bending it weakened the shielding properties. So I am reluctant to rebend this stuff. As it is only a proof of concept sort of thing and I'm not really expecting a big output from it. I am just going to try it.
Should it work, From what I understand I can't even legally claim it works.
So how much do you need? and what shape? I might be willing to part with some.

 

[homebrewed]

I have some now. Was reading something about bending it weakened the shielding properties. So I am reluctant to rebend this stuff. As it is only a proof of concept sort of thing and I'm not really expecting a big output from it. I am just going to try it.
Should it work, From what I understand I can't even legally claim it works.
So how much do you need? and what shape? I might be willing to part with some.

I also have read about its magnetic properties degrading after being work-hardened. My plan was to avoid work-hardening it .

At this point I'm not sure what I really need w/regard to permalloy or mu-metal so I think you can hang on to what you've got.

One other use for this stuff is in a flux gate magnetometer. With the right alloy they are very good at detecting small magnetic fields because their B/H curve saturates in a very low magnetic field. I bought some pure nickel wire to see if I could make a good magnetometer with it (because it also saturates in a low magnetic field) but apparently noise introduced by the Barkhausen Effect in nickel limits its usefulness in that application.

 

[Bruce Billett]

I also have read about its magnetic properties degrading after being work-hardened. My plan was to avoid work-hardening it .

At this point I'm not sure what I really need w/regard to permalloy or mu-metal so I think you can hang on to what you've got.

One other use for this stuff is in a flux gate magnetometer. With the right alloy they are very good at detecting small magnetic fields because their B/H curve saturates in a very low magnetic field. I bought some pure nickel wire to see if I could make a good magnetometer with it (because it also saturates in a low magnetic field) but apparently noise introduced by the Barkhausen Effect in nickel limits its usefulness in that application.

Curiosity gets to me. Why do you want a magnetometer?
For me. fun to try is a very good answer