A multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method and system

Abstract

The present invention discloses a multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method and system, the method comprising: a first signal processing module distributes the radio frequency signal output by a vector signal generator to each narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip; an up-conversion mixer obtains and mixes the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip with the local oscillator high frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator, and outputs a high frequency signal, wherein each narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip is provided with a corresponding up-conversion mixer and a local oscillator signal generator; a second signal processing module combines the high frequency signals output by each channel, and feeds back to a host computer through a vector spectrum analyzer. The present invention can realize the simultaneous testing of multiple narrowband radio frequency transceiver chips, reduce the number of test equipment and the corresponding cost, and improve the test efficiency.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of chip detection, and in particular relates to a multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method and system. Background Art

[0002] With the development of science and technology, satellite communication technology has gradually entered the public's field of vision. Various terminal manufacturers have successively released mobile phones with satellite communication functions, or announced plans to support the implementation of "direct mobile phone connection to satellites", which means that satellite communication functions have officially entered the civilian mobile terminal consumer market on a large scale. If satellite communication functions are to be realized on mobile phones, LNA, Transceiver, BaseBand and other chips are indispensable, but defective chips are difficult to avoid during the manufacturing process. In order to ensure the final performance and reliability of the product, all chips must be mass-produced and screened before shipment.

[0003] Regarding the above-mentioned mass production screening process, there are currently two problems in the industry:

[0004] First, as the core device of satellite communication function, narrowband RF transceiver chip integrates a large number of digital and analog hybrid circuits, which makes the chip mass production test items more and the test resource requirements larger, thus resulting in high test cost. Compared with the traditional industry use positioning, the civilian mobile terminal market has greatly increased the mass production test capacity and test cost requirements of narrowband RF transceiver chip. How to improve the efficiency of chip mass production test, reduce test cost, and reduce test resources have become urgent problems to be solved for mobile phones to realize satellite communication function.

[0005] Secondly, satellite mobile communication systems have the characteristics of wide coverage area, little impact from terrain and topography, and flexible networking. However, due to the long distance of satellites, the link attenuation is much greater than that of ground mobile communication systems. This requires satellite terminals to have a larger dynamic range, stronger anti-blocking, and higher transmission power. This also leads to the anti-blocking, image suppression and other performance requirements of satellite communication RF transceiver chips being much higher than those of ground cellular communication chips. Therefore, the receiving channel of satellite communication RF transceiver chips generally adopts a low intermediate frequency + secondary frequency conversion architecture. Conventional mass production measurement equipment (Automatic Test Equipment, generally refers to automated test equipment used in chip mass production screening processes, such as vector spectrum analyzers) is basically a superheterodyne architecture, with local oscillator leakage and flicker noise (local oscillator leakage: the local oscillator signal escapes from its expected path or leaks and couples to the input port of the up-conversion mixer, mixing with its own local oscillator signal to cause a large DC offset output; flicker noise: there are some uneven electron energy levels in semiconductor materials. When electrons pass through these energy levels, their speed and energy will change, causing the current to flicker irregularly over time, and the energy in the low-frequency domain is stronger than that in the high-frequency domain). As a result, the measurement frequency start and end range of general low-end spectrum analyzers is only 300kHz~3GHz, which makes it difficult to cover the mass production test of narrow-band RF transceiver chips in the extremely low frequency band.

[0006] In addition, the current existing technology for mass production testing of narrowband RF transceiver chips mainly increases the number of test equipment resources for parallel testing to alleviate the problem of low test capacity, and at the same time uses high-end measurement equipment to expand the lower limit of the measurement frequency to tens of kHz or even below several kHz to meet the signal measurement in the low-frequency and RF frequency bands. However, there are the following disadvantages: 1. The stacking of test resources leads to a significant increase in test costs, and the profit of the chip is further compressed; 2. The selected high-end measurement equipment is expensive and cannot completely solve the performance deterioration problem caused by low-frequency signal measurement. Summary of the invention

[0007] In order to overcome the above technical defects, the present invention provides a multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip testing method and system, which reduces the number of test equipment and test costs of high-performance narrowband RF transceiver chips and improves test efficiency and test accuracy.

[0008] In order to solve the above problems, the first aspect of the present invention provides a multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method, comprising:

[0009] The first signal processing module distributes the radio frequency signal output by the vector signal generator to each narrow-band radio frequency transceiver chip;

[0010] The up-conversion mixer obtains and mixes the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip with the local oscillator high frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator, and outputs a high frequency signal, wherein each narrowband RF transceiver chip is equipped with a corresponding up-conversion mixer and local oscillator signal generator;

[0011] The second signal processing module combines the high-frequency signals output from each channel and feeds the signal data back to the host computer through a vector spectrum analyzer.

[0012] Furthermore, it also includes:

[0013] The host computer controls each local oscillator signal generator to output a local oscillator high-frequency signal, wherein each local oscillator high-frequency signal has a certain frequency interval.

[0014] Furthermore, it also includes:

[0015] The measurement spectrum bandwidth of the vector spectrum analyzer is adjusted based on the frequency interval between each local oscillator high frequency signal and the number of narrowband radio frequency transceiver chips.

[0016] Furthermore, it also includes:

[0017] The host computer obtains the mixing noise introduced by the up-conversion mixer, the energy loss introduced by the first signal processing module and the second signal processing module, and the phase noise introduced by the local oscillator signal generator;

[0018] The host computer performs error correction processing on the obtained high-frequency signal based on the obtained error noise, and outputs the detection result of the narrow-band RF transceiver chip.

[0019] A second aspect of the present invention provides a multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test system, which is used to implement the multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test method, including: a vector signal generator, a first signal processing module, a plurality of mixing modules, a second signal processing module and a vector spectrum analyzer.

[0020] The host computer is connected to the vector signal generator through a network port, the output end of the vector signal generator is connected to the first signal processing module, the output end of the first signal processing module is respectively connected to each narrow-band RF transceiver chip, each narrow-band RF transceiver chip is connected to the second signal processing module through a mixing module, and the vector spectrum analyzer collects the high-frequency signal output by the second signal processing module and feeds it back to the host computer.

[0021] Furthermore, the mixing module includes:

[0022] A local oscillator signal generator is used to generate a corresponding local oscillator high-frequency signal according to a test instruction of the host computer, wherein the local oscillator high-frequency signals output by each local oscillator signal generator have a certain frequency interval;

[0023] The up-conversion mixer is connected to the local oscillator signal generator and the narrowband RF transceiver chip respectively, and is used to obtain and mix the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip with the local oscillator high frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator to output a high frequency signal.

[0024] Furthermore, the first signal processing module is a multi-channel power splitter, which is used to distribute signals of equal amplitude and phase to each narrow-band radio frequency transceiver chip;

[0025] The second signal processing module is a combiner, which is used to combine the high-frequency signals output by each mixing module.

[0026] Furthermore, the vector signal generator and vector spectrum analysis communicate with the host computer via TCP, GPIB and / or PCIE.

[0027] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0028] The invention discloses a multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method and system, the testing method comprising: a first signal processing module distributes a radio frequency signal output by a vector signal generator to each narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip; an up-conversion mixer obtains and mixes a low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip with a local oscillator high frequency signal output by a local oscillator signal generator, and outputs a high frequency signal, wherein each narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip is provided with a corresponding up-conversion mixer and a local oscillator signal generator; a second signal processing module merges the high frequency signals output by each channel, and feeds back the signal data to a host computer through a vector spectrum analyzer; the radio frequency signal is distributed to each narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip through the first signal processing module and the high frequency signals output by each channel are merged by the second signal processing module, so as to realize simultaneous testing of multiple narrowband radio frequency transceiver chips, reduce the number of test equipment and corresponding costs, and improve test efficiency. In addition, the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip is modulated into a high-frequency signal through an up-conversion mixer, and parallel testing is performed through frequency division multiplexing to improve test efficiency and reduce the low-frequency coverage lower limit and noise performance requirements of the test instrument. The low intermediate frequency signal performance of narrowband RF signals can also be measured without the need for a high-end vector spectrum analyzer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0029] The specific embodiments of the present invention are further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0030] Figure 1 This is a flow chart of the multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method described in Example 1;

[0031] Figure 2A flowchart of testing four narrowband RF transceiver chips in the multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip testing method described in Example 1;

[0032] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the prior art;

[0033] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test system described in Example 2 Figure 1 ;

[0034] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test system described in Example 2 Figure 2 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the preferred embodiments described herein are only used to illustrate and explain the present invention, and are not used to limit the present invention.

[0036] Example 1

[0037] This embodiment discloses a multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method. Figure 1 ,include:

[0038] S1. The first signal processing module distributes the RF signal output by the vector signal generator to each narrowband RF transceiver chip. The first signal processing module is a multi-way power splitter, so that each narrowband RF transceiver chip can be simultaneously distributed with signals of equal amplitude and phase.

[0039] Specifically, it also includes:

[0040] The host computer controls the vector signal generator to output the RF signal according to the preset parameters.

[0041] S2. The up-conversion mixer obtains and mixes the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip with the local oscillator high frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator to output a high frequency signal, wherein each narrowband RF transceiver chip is equipped with a corresponding up-conversion mixer and local oscillator signal generator.

[0042] Specifically, it also includes:

[0043] The host computer controls each local oscillator signal generator to output a local oscillator high-frequency signal, wherein each local oscillator high-frequency signal has a certain frequency interval to avoid interference caused by the low intermediate frequency signal output by each narrow-band RF transceiver chip after mixing with the local oscillator high-frequency signal.

[0044] S3, the second signal processing module combines the high-frequency signals output from each channel and feeds back the signals to the host computer through the vector spectrum analyzer, wherein the second signal processing module is a combiner.

[0045] Specifically, it also includes:

[0046] Adjusting the measurement spectrum bandwidth of the vector spectrum analyzer based on the frequency interval between each local oscillator high frequency signal and the number of narrowband RF transceiver chips;

[0047] The vector spectrum analyzer collects the broadband high-frequency signal combined by the combiner and obtains the energy measurement results of different frequency bands of the broadband high-frequency signal;

[0048] Based on the energy measurement results of different frequency bands of broadband high-frequency signals, the vector spectrum analyzer uses frequency division multiplexing to analyze and obtain the signal characteristics of different frequency bands and send them to the host computer.

[0049] Specifically, it also includes:

[0050] The host computer obtains the mixing noise introduced by the up-conversion mixer, the energy loss introduced by the first signal processing module and the second signal processing module, and the phase noise introduced by the local oscillator signal generator;

[0051] The host computer performs error correction processing on the obtained signal characteristics of different frequency bands based on the obtained error noise, and outputs the detection result of the narrowband RF transceiver chip.

[0052] The following is an explanation of the specific implementation process:

[0053] Take the simultaneous testing of four narrowband RF transceiver chips as an example:

[0054] like Figure 2 , establish communication connections between the host computer, vector signal generator, multi-channel power splitter, narrowband RF transceiver chip, up-conversion mixer, local oscillator signal generator, combiner and vector spectrum analyzer.

[0055] The host computer controls the vector signal generator to output power according to preset parameters and distributes the RF signal to each narrowband RF transceiver chip (site_1, site_2, site_3, site_4) through a multi-way power divider.

[0056] The host computer controls the local oscillator signal generator corresponding to each narrowband RF transceiver chip to output a local oscillator high-frequency signal with a certain frequency interval (for example, the local oscillator signal generator of site_1 generates a sine wave signal with a frequency of 1GHz, and the local oscillator signal generator of site_2 generates a sine wave signal with a frequency of 1.05GHz, and the frequency interval is ≥50MHz. A certain frequency interval is reserved between each local oscillator high-frequency signal to avoid frequency interference). The up-conversion mixer mixes the low intermediate frequency signal received from the narrowband RF transceiver chip and the local oscillator high-frequency signal from the local oscillator signal generator. The four high-frequency signals after mixing are combined into a broadband high-frequency signal through a combiner and output, wherein the broadband high-frequency signal contains high-frequency signals of four different frequency bands.

[0057] Based on the frequency interval of 50MHz between each local oscillator high-frequency signal and the number of narrowband RF transceiver chips, the measurement spectrum bandwidth of the vector spectrum analyzer is adjusted: 4*50MHz=200MHz, that is, the measurement spectrum bandwidth of the vector spectrum analyzer needs to be set to be greater than 200MHz. The vector spectrum analyzer collects the broadband high-frequency signal output by the combiner and analyzes it to obtain the energy measurement results of different frequency bands. For example, after analysis, the frequency of site_1 is F1, the frequency of site_2 is F2, the frequency of site_3 is F3, and the frequency of site_4 is F4. And the signal data of the four narrowband RF transceiver chips are sent to the host computer by frequency division multiplexing (array parallel reading method on the broadband spectrum).

[0058] The host computer calculates the signal data of the four-channel narrow-band RF transceiver chip based on the mixing error introduced by the up-conversion mixer, the energy loss introduced by the first signal processing module and the second signal processing module, and the phase noise introduced by the local oscillator signal generator, eliminates the influence of the introduced error, and outputs the test results of the narrow-band RF transceiver chip.

[0059] When the i-th test is completed normally, repeat the above steps to perform the i+1-th test until all test items are completed. During the test, if data collection abnormalities occur or a cancellation instruction is received from the user, the test is terminated immediately.

[0060] When the narrowband RF transceiver chip completes all test items, the test results are recorded and saved and a test report is generated.

[0061] Example 2

[0062] like Figure 4 and Figure 5This embodiment discloses a multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test system, which is used to implement the multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test method described in Example 1. The multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test system includes a vector signal generator, a first signal processing module, a plurality of mixing modules, a second signal processing module and a vector spectrum analyzer. The host computer is connected to the vector signal generator through a network port, the output end of the vector signal generator is connected to the first signal processing module, the output end of the first signal processing module is connected to each narrowband RF transceiver chip, each narrowband RF transceiver chip is connected to the second signal processing module through a mixing module, and the vector spectrum analyzer collects the high-frequency signal output by the second signal processing module and feeds it back to the host computer.

[0063] Specifically, the frequency mixing module includes a local oscillator signal generator and an up-conversion mixer. The local oscillator signal generator is used to generate a corresponding local oscillator high-frequency signal according to the test instruction of the host computer, wherein the local oscillator high-frequency signals output by each local oscillator signal generator have a certain frequency interval. The up-conversion mixer is connected to the local oscillator signal generator and the narrow-band RF transceiver chip respectively, and is used to obtain and mix the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrow-band RF transceiver chip with the local oscillator high-frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator, and output a high-frequency signal.

[0064] Specifically, the vector signal generator is used to output the RF signal according to the instructions of the host computer; the first signal processing module is a multi-way power splitter, which is used to receive the RF signal output by the vector signal generator and distribute equal-amplitude and equal-phase signals to each narrow-band RF transceiver chip. By combining the vector signal generator with the multi-way power splitter, the traditional stacking form of multiple vector signal generators is replaced, reducing the number of test equipment and the cost of test equipment. The second signal processing module is a combiner, which is used to combine the high-frequency signals output by the frequency conversion mixers on each channel; the vector spectrum analyzer is used to collect and analyze the high-frequency signals output by the combiner, and upload the analysis results to the host computer.

[0065] The output end of the vector signal generator is connected to the multi-way power divider, the output end of the multi-way power divider is connected to the signal input end of each narrowband RF transceiver chip, the signal output end of the narrowband RF transceiver chip is connected to the IF port of the up-conversion mixer, and the up-conversion mixer outputs a low intermediate frequency signal; the L0 port of the up-conversion mixer is connected to the local oscillator signal generator to obtain the local oscillator high-frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator. The host computer writes corresponding configurations to each local oscillator signal generator according to the serial number of different narrowband RF transceiver chips, so that each local oscillator signal generator outputs a local oscillator high-frequency signal of the corresponding frequency, and ensures that there is a certain frequency interval between each local oscillator high-frequency signal (such as controlling the local oscillator signal generator of site_1 to generate a sine wave signal with a frequency of 1GHz, and the local oscillator signal generator of site_2 to generate a sine wave signal with a frequency of 1.05GHz, and the frequency interval between the signals is ≥50MHz) to avoid interference between the signals output by different narrowband RF transceiver chips after frequency conversion. The up-conversion mixer mixes the low intermediate frequency signal and the local oscillator high frequency signal to output a high frequency signal.

[0066] Each narrowband RF transceiver chip outputs high-frequency signals of different frequency bands through its corresponding local oscillator signal generator and up-conversion mixer. The combiner combines multiple high-frequency signals and outputs broadband high-frequency signals to the vector spectrum analyzer. Specifically, the vector spectrum analyzer adjusts the measurement spectrum bandwidth of the vector spectrum analyzer based on the frequency interval between each local oscillator high-frequency signal and the number of narrowband RF transceiver chips.

[0067] The vector spectrum analyzer analyzes the high-frequency signal, obtains relevant signal data and uploads it to the host computer for error processing to obtain the test results.

[0068] Specifically, the vector signal generator and the vector spectrum analyzer communicate with the host computer via TCP, GPIB and / or PCIE.

[0069] Compared with the prior art, the present invention can realize parallel measurement and screening of multiple narrowband RF transceiver chips by using a vector signal generator, a vector spectrum analyzer, several local oscillator signal generators and several up-conversion mixers, thereby reducing the number of test equipment and the cost of test equipment and improving test efficiency.

[0070] By up-converting the low-IF signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip to a higher frequency, the low-frequency coverage lower limit capability and noise performance requirements of the test equipment are reduced, so that the low-IF signal performance of the narrowband RF transceiver chip can be measured without the need for a high-end vector spectrum analyzer. At the same time, the impact of DC offset and flicker noise caused by the low-frequency band of the vector spectrum analyzer on the actual test results can be effectively reduced.

[0071] The present invention not only allows multiple narrowband RF transceiver chips to be tested simultaneously by means of frequency division multiplexing, but also controls the local oscillator signal generator to output a local oscillator high-frequency signal with a certain frequency interval, and modulates the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip into a high-frequency signal by means of an up-conversion mixer, so that the signal frequencies processed by each narrowband RF transceiver chip are different, and the vector spectrum analyzer can simultaneously collect and analyze the signal characteristics of multiple narrowband RF transceiver chips, changing the method of increasing test equipment resources used in the prior art, greatly improving the test efficiency while reducing the number of test resources. By modulating the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip into a high-frequency signal, the low-end vector spectrum analyzer is prevented from being unable to measure the low intermediate frequency signal of the narrowband RF transceiver chip and the influence of the superposition of noise such as DC offset and flicker noise in the low frequency band of the high-end vector spectrum analyzer.

[0072] Finally, it should be noted that, in this article, relational terms such as first and second, etc. are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "comprise" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device. In the absence of further restrictions, the elements defined by the sentence "comprise a ..." do not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or device including the elements.

[0073] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and does not limit the present invention in any form. Therefore, any modification, equivalent change and modification made to the above embodiment based on the technical essence of the present invention without departing from the technical solution of the present invention shall still fall within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention.

Claims

1. A multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method, characterized in that: include: The first signal processing module distributes the radio frequency signal output by the vector signal generator to each narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip; The up-conversion mixer obtains and mixes the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip with the local oscillator high frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator, and outputs a high frequency signal, wherein each narrowband RF transceiver chip is provided with a corresponding up-conversion mixer and local oscillator signal generator; The second signal processing module combines the high-frequency signals output from each channel and feeds the signal data back to the host computer through a vector spectrum analyzer.

2. The multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip testing method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Also includes: The host computer controls each local oscillator signal generator to output a local oscillator high-frequency signal, wherein each local oscillator high-frequency signal has a certain frequency interval.

3. The multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip testing method according to claim 2, characterized in that: Also includes: The measurement spectrum bandwidth of the vector spectrum analyzer is adjusted based on the frequency interval between each local oscillator high frequency signal and the number of narrowband radio frequency transceiver chips.

4. The multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip testing method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Also includes: The host computer obtains the mixing noise introduced by the up-conversion mixer, the energy loss introduced by the first signal processing module and the second signal processing module, and the phase noise introduced by the local oscillator signal generator; The host computer performs error correction processing on the obtained high-frequency signal based on the acquired error noise, and outputs the detection result of the narrow-band RF transceiver chip. The error noise includes the mixing error introduced by the up-conversion mixer, the energy loss introduced by the first signal processing module and the second signal processing module, and the phase noise introduced by the local oscillator signal generator.

5. A multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip test system, used to implement the multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip test method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: include: A vector signal generator, a first signal processing module, a plurality of frequency mixing modules, a second signal processing module and a vector spectrum analyzer, The host computer is connected to the vector signal generator through a network port, the output end of the vector signal generator is connected to the first signal processing module, the output end of the first signal processing module is respectively connected to each narrow-band RF transceiver chip, each narrow-band RF transceiver chip is connected to the second signal processing module through a mixing module, and the vector spectrum analyzer collects the high-frequency signal output by the second signal processing module and feeds it back to the host computer.

6. The multi-site narrowband RF transceiver chip test system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The mixing module comprises: A local oscillator signal generator is used to generate a corresponding local oscillator high-frequency signal according to a test instruction of the host computer, wherein the local oscillator high-frequency signals output by each local oscillator signal generator have a certain frequency interval; The up-conversion mixer is connected to the local oscillator signal generator and the narrowband RF transceiver chip respectively, and is used to obtain and mix the low intermediate frequency signal output by the narrowband RF transceiver chip with the local oscillator high frequency signal output by the local oscillator signal generator to output a high frequency signal.

7. The multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip test system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The first signal processing module is a multi-channel power splitter, which is used to distribute signals of equal amplitude and phase to each narrow-band RF transceiver chip; The second signal processing module is a combiner, which is used to combine the high-frequency signals output by each mixing module.

8. The multi-site narrowband radio frequency transceiver chip test system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The vector signal generator and vector spectrum analysis communicate with the host computer via TCP, GPIB and / or PCIE.

Images