FPGA Architecture for RF Transceiver System and Mixed-Signal Low Cost Tests

Standard automated test equipment (ATE) for radio frequency (RF) transceiver production testing of today is limited by digital signal processing and data transfer. These constraints can be considerably relaxed by the application of new technology based on field programmable gate array (FPGA). The methods proposed are capable of handling all tasks flexibly and at-speed. FPGA hardware resources are embedded into available ATE environment and support modular signal processing as well as highspeed interfacing. Avoiding any ATE upgrades, the costs for RF transceiver production testing can be driven to an absolute minimum that is achievable.