Inertial sensor manufacturers that test micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) with Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) links face significant challenges. SPI was introduced in the early 1980s for short-range, board-level communication, and it became popular for its high data rates and full-duplex capability. However, those strengths turn into limitations when the interface must operate over distances greater than a few tenths of centimeters.

In Inertial MEMS testing, sensors are mounted on a tabletop, while the data-acquisition system controlling them is typically located at the base of the rate or positioning table – often in the 10-meter range away. To bridge this gap, some manufacturers rely on rate and positioning tables with external tabletops (sacrificing workspace, dynamics, and cost efficiency), reduce communication speeds (undesirable when many devices must be tested in parallel), or use expensive FPGA-based clock-delay solutions that require painstaking re-tuning whenever the setup changes.