Low cost parametric failure diagnosis of RF transceivers

Due to aggressive technology scaling, parametric failure diagnosis of RF transceiver modules is becoming important for rapid yield ramp-up. In this paper, a low cost diagnosis approach is proposed that is amenable to built-in diagnosis of RF transceivers via diagnostic algorithms running on the transceiver DSP. The method relies on the use of a single sensor at the transmitter output that eliminates the need to make costly RF measurements. In addition, module level diagnosis is possible without the need for probing other internal RF signals. A sequence of specially crafted stimuli, are applied to the transceiver from the on-board DSP processor. The sensor and received baseband output signals are analyzed and the specifications of embedded RF modules are extracted from the test response data. The proposed approach is demonstrated using simulation and hardware measurements on a 2.45GHz transceiver. Experiment results show high diagnosis accuracy of parametric failures in embedded RF modules