New test approaches for zero-IF transceiver devices

As increased levels of integration become more commonplace in wireless designs, new approaches must be developed to address these test challenges. Today, two chip solutions play a dominant role in wireless local area networking (WLAN) 802.11 architectures. Typically the interface between these devices (the radio and the baseband processor) is an analog in-phase and quadrature (I and Q) link. Traditional measurements to quantify the performance of this link include analyzing filter responses, magnitude and phase imbalances, and other parametric measurements. As this signal interface moves to a digital link, or disappears altogether as these devices integrate, these traditional metrics no longer apply. This paper will look at using error vector magnitude (EVM) and other test methods to quantify system performance to both reduce test time and complexity, while providing a robust solution to fully quantify device radio performance in easy to understand metrics.