Built-in Self Test (BIST) for Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) Measurement of RF Transceiver

International audienceIn wireless systems, the overall quality of transmission and reception is determined by various baseband and RF system specifications. The error vector magnitude (EVM) is a measure of the digital modulation quality of the wireless system-under-test which is very sensitive to much impairment in the transceiver. However the EVM test takes a long time and requires expansive automatic test equipment (ATE) in production. The originality of the proposed approach lies in its ability to overcome two limitations being faced by available techniques (correction signal, reference synchronization, correlation analysis), in addition to length frame reduction. In order to decrease the test cost, time and length sequence, a new EVM measurement method using built-in self test (BIST) is proposed in this paper. Using a digital phase shifter and a multiplier, a reduced QPSK data sequence minimizes the test time and covers the faults such as IQ impairments and amplification distortions. The BIST method demonstrates only 1% difference compared to the usual EVM method and is 1000 times faster than the traditional EVM test (it takes 200¿s)