Agile Testing Methods for IC Radios

This thesis concentrates on the development of a new testing procedure for the radio used in Broadcom\u201fs WLAN and cellular chips. Verification and hardware testing for the radio is completed at the end of the development cycle by the fabrication of test chips which contain only radio specific hardware. Utilizing test chips allow for component specific design verification, performance analysis and debugging of the Integrated Circuit (IC) radio before large scale production. In this thesis we present a new testing method that is intended to improve the development time, lower costs, and provide more agility within the IC radio testing process. This thesis takes an in depth look at the development and deployment of these new testing methods. It provides an examination of the hardware requirements for testing IC radios and the software developed to automate test development and control testing procedures. The main components developed for this project are the Chip Communications and Control Module and the Phase-Locked Loop controller. Respectively, these components were designed to control the operation of a test chip and configure the mechanism that locks the chip\u201fs RF signal to a desired frequency. Previous testing methods include the use of Automated Testing Equipment (ATE) and small scale test platforms built around LabVIEW. These testing methods can be costly, impractical, require longer development cycles, and are not contusive to agile methodologies. The new procedures attempt to provide a better test platform for WLAN radios by addressing these issues and matching or exceeding the requirements of the previous test platforms.

Name thesis:degree_name

Computer Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Year

2011

Author dc:creator

• Martinez, Luis

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jordan, Ramiro
• Heileman, Gregory
• Pattichis, Marios

• Integrated Circuits
• Hardware Testing
• System Automation
• IC Testing
• Python

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ece_etds/173

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:ece_etds-1172