Modern measurement platform with a chip-down solution for electrochemical applications
Zahner-Elektrik’s measuring instruments have been established for decades as highly precise and versatile systems in electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry. They are used in a wide variety of research and industrial applications in electrochemistry, such as energy conversion, sensor technology, and materials science, and they meet the highest standards of accuracy and reliability.
Challenge
As part of its ongoing development efforts, Zahner-Elektrik, in collaboration with Trenz Electronic, has designed a new CPU platform for the IM7 device generation, specifically for the controllers in the measurement card system. The design fully leverages the Zynq architecture by combining the hardware CPU cores with timing-critical logic and dynamically generated soft CPUs implemented in the FPGA fabric. The goal was to create a high‑performance architecture that supports high‑speed multichannel measurements while simultaneously ensuring real‑time processing of all acquired data.
The developed platform provides high‑bandwidth digital and analog interfaces that support fast data acquisition, synchronized triggering, and reliable communication with external instruments. It is designed to integrate seamlessly into demanding electrochemical measurement setups and to scale with additional modules when required. The “CPU card” forms the core of Zahner Elektrik’s modular measurement system. It handles all measurement tasks, processes and analyzes the acquired data, and provides the necessary interfaces.
Implementation with Trenz Modules
The technical foundation for the custom chip‑down solution was the TE0803 module, which Trenz Electronic used as the basis for the hardware design. In addition to developing the hardware, Trenz Electronic also served as an EMS provider and contributed extensive experience in manufacturing and system integration to the project.
The systems are currently used in applications such as fuel cells and electrolyzers. Use cases range from basic research and material optimization at laboratory scale to large‑scale testing for validation and analysis. One specific example is end‑of‑line testing of an electrolysis stack after assembly. Here, electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) can be used to obtain detailed information about the internal parameters of the entire stack as well as individual cells or clusters.
