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Reducing Test Time Using an Enhanced RF Loopback

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Abstract

This work presents a method to improve the loopback test used in RF transceivers. The approach is targeted to the System-On-Chip environment, being able to reuse system resources in order to minimize the test overhead. An RF sampler is used during loopback operation, allowing observation of spectral characteristics of the RF signal. While able to improve the overall observability of the RF signal path, faster diagnosis than conventional loopback tests is achieved thanks to a large reduction in the number of transmitted symbols. Theoretical analysis and practical results for a prototype transceiver operating at 846 MHz are presented. It is shown that a significant test time reduction is achievable considering bit error rate tests for common digital modulation schemes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mr. Alisson M. Michels for his help in building the experimental setup, and prof. Cláudio Fernandez for his helpful support and numerous discussions regarding RF circuits. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.This work was supported in part by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Marcelo Negreiros & Altamiro Amadeu Susin

  2. Computer Science Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Luigi Carro & Altamiro Amadeu Susin

Authors
  1. Marcelo Negreiros
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  2. Luigi Carro
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  3. Altamiro Amadeu Susin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcelo Negreiros.

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Responsible Editor: M. Lubaszewski

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Negreiros, M., Carro, L. & Susin, A.A. Reducing Test Time Using an Enhanced RF Loopback. J Electron Test 23, 613–623 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-007-5026-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-007-5026-2

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