Keysight Technologies recently conducted India’s biggest conclave on digital and wireless test technologies for electronics, mobile and telecommunication design and manufacturing. The event focused on providing faster, better and more economical ways to test today’s mobile devices. It also delivered experiences in digital and wireless testing, demonstrating the latest revolutionary technologies and the industry’s leading test and measurement products. In an interview with Chandramauli Mitra of Electronics Bazaar, Sudhir Tangri, country general manager, and Gautam Awasthi, general manager-marketing, talked about the emerging trends in digital and wireless test technology and the new solutions from Keysight Technologies that address the requirements of its customers
EB: How do Keysight’s test and measurement (T&M) tools bolster the Make in India campaign?
To begin with, I would like to congratulate the new government for starting up and pushing the ‘Make in India’ initiative. It is imperative that we focus on manufacturing in India to grow jobs and the economy. As far as Keysight is concerned, the ‘Make in India’ campaign has two primary dimensions, that is, wireless and the aerospace and defence segments. Keysight sees India as the biggest consumer of handsets, tablets and various other wireless devices, a market that is expected to grow or continue to grow for the next few years. Therefore, setting up a manufacturing unit for such devices will be a huge step forward not only to make India self-sufficient, but also help in preventing foreign exchange going out of the country (by reducing imports).
Keysight is working closely with wireless device manufacturers in India to enable them to design better devices and to stay ahead of the curve. The company offers a large number of test and measurement solutions catering to every stage of product development, which will enable and bolster the ‘Make in India’ initiative. For instance, the wireless test tools enable semiconductor companies to test designs at the chipset stage; the wireless test and design tools help the people who are designing products and lastly, are Keysight’s state-of-art wireless tools for assembly line, production and manufacturing testing. The other dimension of aerospace and defence is a big market space that is opening up by virtue of the ‘Make in India’ initiative. We are practically working with every local player (i.e., public sector units, government entities, multinational companies and joint ventures of Indian companies with MNCs) and the action is expected to start very soon, leading to a lot of manufacturing orders for aerospace and defence related systems in India.
EB: How do you see the wireless and digital market space in India?
India is slowly catching up with the rest of the world in wireless technology, a revolution that started almost 20 years back. Initially, India lagged behind, rolling out the right wireless technologies when it came to 2G and 3G proliferations. On 4G, the operators are really catching the spectrum that is available to them for rolling out the technology. To keep pace with the rest of the world, Keysight is tying up with institutes for research on 5G.
With the growing wireless data traffic and an inevitable surge in consumption expected from the Internet of Things (IoT), which is bound to happen in the near future, Keysight sees chipset designers in India playing a crucial and influential role in pushing up the wireless and digital market space. Looking forward to meeting the growing demand for wireless and digital applications, Keysight has started investing heavily worldwide. In an initiative to stay ahead of the competition, Keysight application specialists are in touch with the forums that decide the specifications and standards for 5G. Such initiatives will allow Keysight to come up with new wireless test tools for research or for implementation purposes.
EB: What are the key factors driving the growth of wireless and digital devices?
The key reason for the growth of wireless and digital devices is the increase in data traffic on handsets. Taking India as an example, the current mobile penetration is more than 80 per cent when compared to 20 years back. So, the mega-trend that can be identified is the growing demand of mobile devices along with an exponential growth of mobile data, worldwide as well as in India.
EB: What are the major challenges hampering the growth of wireless and digital devices?
The exponential rise of mobile data traffic is one of the key challenges and 5G addresses this.
EB: How does Keysight define IoT?
Keysight does not have unusual ways to define the IoT but being an electronics company, we prefer to see it as the ‘Electronics-of-Things’. Having been an instrumentation leader over the last 75 years, Keysight’s prime focus is to enable and empower IoT technology from the company’s testing standpoint.
EB: How has wireless charging technology and the associated market evolved?
Though wireless charging has been in the beta stage for a long time and has not yet been commercialised, Keysight has tools that enable designers to do battery tests, drain tests and more. These tools bring in the technology that enables designers to test their product for the challenges of wireless charging. One of the major challenges that wireless charging faces is of the signal passing through the human body. The company also has solutions for testing interference or interoperability, in order to manage signals efficiently while charging the device wirelessly.
EB: When will we see mass adoption of wireless charging?
As soon as the companies start addressing the challenges associated with wireless charging, I think there will be a huge market potential and acceptance of wireless charging.
EB: What can we expect to see in terms of technology and product advancements?
Keysight, being a T&M leader, is committed to the markets and the customers it serves with all upcoming technologies related to the wireless, aerospace, defence, semiconductors or digital space. As a company, we remain committed to come out with solutions, which will enable our customers to test, verify and monitor technologies such as 5G, IoT, radar technology and more.
EB: What is Keysight’s marketing strategy for the development of wireless and digital measurement devices?
As a company, we are focused on keeping our customers happy by catering to their needs and demands. We want to give them the best products that are available worldwide, here in India, at the best possible price, with the best support. All our strategies are aimed towards being customer-centric and ensure that we provide the best, in the best possible way.
Keysight has a huge team of applications specialists (who help customers to resolve their applications related issues), support engineers (to ensure proper functioning and maintenance of the product) and NABL-accredited calibration labs (to certify measurements that are calibrated using the latest standards). This helps to offer unmatched support and infrastructure in the country, when compared to any of our competitors.
