美国Refraction Technology, Inc. (REF TEK)
美国REF TEK


Introducing Refraction Technology, Inc.

REF TEK was founded in 1975 to produce quality, niche products for the land, marine and oil exploration markets. In 1981, REF TEK supplied a digital telemetry system to the University of California, San Diego for use in the ANZA area. This network was the first digital telemetry system in the U.S.A. and is successfully operating to this day.

IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology), a consortium of 104 U.S.A. universities, was formed in 1984. IRIS focused on two research arenas: the Global Seismological Network (GSN) and the Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL). One of the prime goals of PASSCAL was to procure a large pool of portable instruments to record reflection and refraction and passive broadband data for elucidation of the crust down to the mantle. Specifications were issued in a competitive bid, and the REF TEK approach was chosen. REF TEK has delivered more than 1000 digital acquisition stations to IRIS under this award.

In 1991, REF TEK adapted a Hewlett-Packard 24-bit digitizer to provide a high resolution digitizing and recording system for the International Deployment of Accelerometers (IDA) of the University of California, San Diego. IDA is now part of the IRIS/GSN program. Approximately 30% of all GSN stations use instruments supplied by REF TEK.

More than 6,500 REF TEK Instruments are presently being used in the following applications:

Wide angle reflection
Wide angle refraction
2-D and 3-D reflection
Passive broadband tomography
Passive broadband imaging
Passive short-period imaging
Portable earthquake monitoring
Portable background noise surveys
Earthquake aftershock recording
Telemetry earthquake monitoring
Telemetry verification monitoring
Oil Field VSP recording
Ocean-Bottom Seismograph (OBS) recording
Mining exploration using IP, MT, EM, SCAMT techniques

Since our inception, REF TEK has continued to research and expand our products and capabilities to meet the changing needs of the seismological community. Almost all instruments sold now have 24-bit digitizing capability and GPS timing.

A radically new data logger design is the product of the advancements in gate arrays which allow the use of real-time operating systems and communications software able to use the Internet as well as updated microcomputer architecture.

Power is always a critical issue for any seismological application. The 3rd Generation Broadband Seismic Recorder, model 130-01, utilizes new power logic and is the industry leader in low power consumption. With the development of the model 130-01 with lower power consumption, lighter weight and smaller size, REF TEK has again surpassed our own standard. See the product section for more information on the advancements of the model 130-01.