A functional test of 2-GHz/4-GHz RF digital communication device using digital tester

Author

Ichiyama, Kiyotaka ; Ishida, Makoto ; Nagatani, Keiji ; Watanabe, Toshio

Author_Institution

ADVANTEST Corp., Gunma, Japan

fYear

2013

fDate

6-13 Sept. 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

10

Abstract

Recently, there is an increasing need for methods of functionally testing RF devices to provide lower cost alternatives to testing RF communication systems. In this paper, a real-time functional testing method of RF-ICs using a digital tester is proposed as an alternative to conventional RF testing. The method is based on a concept of direct modulation. By employing the proposed method, the QPSK and 16-QAM signals can be generated with digital tester drivers. The method can directly compare the baseband data with its expected data through digital tester comparators without demodulation. Therefore, the proposed method does not require any modulator or demodulator. Moreover, the method can perform both a stress test of RF receivers by injecting modulation error and a margin test of RF transmitters by using a dual-threshold comparator.

Keywords

integrated circuit testing; microwave integrated circuits; microwave receivers; quadrature amplitude modulation; quadrature phase shift keying; radio transmitters; 16-QAM signals; QPSK signals; RF communication systems; RF devices; RF digital communication device; RF receiver stress test; RF testing; RF transmitter margin test; RF-IC; digital tester comparators; digital tester drivers; dual-threshold comparator; frequency 2 GHz; frequency 4 GHz; real-time functional testing method; Baseband; Phase shift keying; RF signals; Radio frequency; Synchronization; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Test Conference (ITC), 2013 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA

ISSN

1089-3539

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TEST.2013.6651909

Filename

6651909