Charlie’s Status Report for 4/18

This past two weeks were mainly focused on revising the oscillator design and supporting probe station testing efforts as the team worked toward verifying whether the circuit could produce a stable oscillating output in practice. A large portion of my work involved re-examining the current oscillator schematic in light of the physical testing constraints we encountered, especially the difficulty of maintaining precise and reliable probe connections across a relatively large number of required pins. In parallel with Jim during probe station sessions, I helped think through how the existing setup could be tested more effectively and what schematic-level changes might make the design more practical for direct on-chip measurement. A major focus during this period was exploring alternative design approaches that could reduce the number of pins required during testing while still preserving the core oscillator behavior we want to demonstrate. This included considering revised schematic structures, simplifying supporting connections where possible, and evaluating whether certain design choices could make the probe station setup more robust against alignment and contact precision issues. The latest testing efforts were useful not only for checking for oscillation at the output, but also for identifying where the current design may be too difficult to reliably validate in its present form. Overall, this work helped move the project from simply trying to test the original design toward more actively refining the design around real measurement constraints, and although verifying oscillation remains challenging, these revisions and design discussions have put the project in a better position to improve testability and make the final oscillator demonstration more achievable.