Agilent DigRF^SMV4 Products & Solutions Backgrounder

Industry Group Driving the DigRF^SM Standards

The MIPI^SM alliance is comprised of representatives from RF-IC development companies, Baseband-IC development companies and mobile wireless communications OEMs. The charter of the MIPI^SM alliance is to define digital serial interfaces between ICs on a mobile handset device. The DigRF^SM digital serial interfaces are being defined to enable interoperability between RF-ICs and BB-ICs from different suppliers. Additional benefits that can be realized by utilizing the DigRF^SM standards include reduced cost as a result of reduced pin count and extended battery life as enabled by high speed low power and sleep modes. Participating companies in the MIPI^SM Alliance group can be found on the www.mipi.org site and include Nokia, Motorola, Intel, Ericsson, NXP, STM, Infineon/Dice, Freescale, and Renesas to name a few.

The DigRF^SM V4 digital serial interface standard is an emerging standard in development by the MIPI^SM Alliance. Many of the leading RF-IC suppliers and BB-IC suppliers are developing their next generation components based upon the DigRF^SM V4 specification. The DigRF^SM V4 standard supports a variety of 2.5G , 3GPP and 4G air standards including LTE and WiMAX™. The DigRF^SM V4 standard is comprised of separate transmit and receive differential signal pairs. A variety of control packet and data (IQ) packet formats are defined with the DigRF^SM V4 standard and driven between the RF-IC and the BB-IC over the prescribed electrical interface.

The challenge for Test and Measurement companies is to provide cross domain solutions for RF-IC development teams, BB-IC development teams and RF-IC / BB-IC integration teams. By "cross-domain", we mean measurements that require stimulus and analysis of the device under test in both the digital (baseband) and RF (Wireless) inputs and outputs. Aided by cross domain solutions, development teams will be able to capitalize on the benefits of DigRF^SM V4 standard to build competitive advantage. Agilent Technologies, with its portfolio of RF products (Signal Sources, Spectrum Analyzers, Network Analyzers and RF EDA tools) coupled with its portfolio of digital products (Logic Analyzers, Protocol Analyzers and Oscilloscopes) is uniquely positioned to provide cross domain measurement solutions to the mobile wireless industry.

Agilent began shipments on January 2009 of the industry's first Digital Radio Frequency (DigRF^SM) V4 test solution, enabling comprehensive stimulus and analysis for developers of radio-frequency integrated circuits (RF-IC) and baseband ICs (BB-IC) as well as integrators of wireless handsets.

The new Agilent end-to-end DigRF^SM V4 measurement solution for mobile handset design enables handset integration teams to quickly evaluate product behavior by monitor the digital serial bit stream between the RF-IC and BB-IC.

DigRF^SM V4 control packets are decoded and displayed on the system controller to provide visibility into the configuration, status and control flow. IQ data is extracted from the DigRF^SM V4 data packets and analyzed using the 89600 vector signal analysis software. With these capabilities, handset integrators can characterize the interactions between the RF-IC and the BB-IC to isolate defects and optimize performance. This is a crucial aspect because in some cases, the RF-IC and BB-IC are developed by different vendors, and integrated by the ODM/NEM into a final handset design. Obviously, determine root cause of problems during the integration process (and who is responsible) is very important.

The Agilent solution enables RF-IC development teams to completely characterize their components independent of the BB-IC. (Similar explanation to above -- the BB-IC may not be ready at the same time as the RF-IC, or the RF-IC manufacturing needs to prove interoperability with a number of different BB-ICs from different vendors.

RF-IC Transmitter tests

The RF-IC transmitter is characterized by developing a digital IQ representation of the RF signal using signal studio and loading it into the System Controller. The exercising module packetizes the IQ data, inserts the specified control packets and drives the bit stream into the RF-IC digital baseband input over the DigRF^SM V4 interface. The RF-IC converts the digital signals into analog, processes the serial bit stream and generates an RF signal that is captured by the Agilent MXA signal analyzer and can be analyzed using the Agilent 89600 VSA software. Designers can compare the output RF waveform produced by the RF IC to the intended baseband waveform as produced by the BB-IC to characterize transmitter behavior, including the effects of conversion of the data from Digital to Analog, and impact of frequency upconversion for example.

RF-IC Receiver Tests

The receiver is characterized by driving a known RF signal into the RF-IC Analog RF Rx port using an E4438C or MXG Signal Source. The RF-IC processes the RF signal and renders the digital IQ, which is packetized and provided out in the DigRF^SM V4 digital serial format. Again, the 89600 VSA software in conjunction with the MXA signal analyzer, and the DigRF^SM exerciser and analysis modules (captures the serial bit stream and extracts the relevant IQ data for analysis.

The Agilent solutions enable BB-IC development teams to evaluate and tune the behavior of their components independent of the RF-IC:

System Integration and Validation

Using the acquisition probe, validation teams can monitor transactions on the DigRF^SM V4 interface generated by the BB-IC. Control packets are displayed on the system controller and IQ from the data packets can be evaluated using the vector signal analysis package. The receive path on the BB-IC can be characterized by driving the DigRF^SM V4 interface with IQ data packets from the stimulus probe. The IQ data packets are creating on the logic analyzer using the digital IQ representation of the RF signal generated in signal studio.

The integration of DigRF^SM V4 exercising and analysis tools and the Agilent RF portfolio provide the cross domain solutions that will enable the rapid deployment of DigRF^SM V4 based products by the wireless industry.

Agilent's measurement solutions and services development for digital applications is driven and supported by the work that Agilent's experts do in the various international standard committees. The Agilent Standards Program for digital applications comprises Double Data Rate (DDR) memory, PCI Express®, DisplayPort, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Serial ATA (SATA), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI®), DigRF and optical transceiver test. Our experts are in the Board of Directors in Joint Electronic Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC), PCI-SIG® and Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). Agilent is contributing member in Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), USB-Implementers Forum (USB-IF) and Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance.

Agilent's involvement in these standards gives Agilent and its customers, the computing and communication component vendors to the electronics consumer market, two main advantages:

• First, it enables us to bring the right products to the market when our customers need them. We aim to be first to market with our solutions so you as our customer can be first to market with your products ensuring standard compliance.
• Second, with Agilent's involvement in plug-fests, workshops and seminars we are in the unique position to develop solutions that evolve with the standards, giving you the ability to design the best products with the highest confidence.

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