Automated MIPI M-PHY Testing

20 June 2012 – Tektronix announced a series of enhancements to its automated MIPI Alliance M-PHY test solutions, offering new multi-lane transmitter test setup enablement and the widest test coverage – automation of approximately 1,000 tests – for this rapidly emerging mobile device standard. To showcase this comprehensive test coverage, Tektronix and ST-Ericsson provided hands-on demonstrations during the MIPI Alliance All Member Meeting in Berlin.

The demo setup features a Tektronix DPO/DSA/MSO70000 series oscilloscope connected to an ST-Ericsson device under test (DUT) to show how this solution can be used to evaluate M-PHY Tx and Rx physical layers along with MIPI DigRFv4 protocol analysis.

“We have been using Tektronix M-PHY test bench for over a year for M-PHY electrical characterization and analysis and to significantly speed up compliance testing," said Ahmed Bouaiss, High-Speed Project Lead Test Development, and Steve Kwiatkowski, High-Speed Serial Test Development Engineer for ST-Ericsson.  "Advanced test solutions such as those available from Tektronix are critical to the emergence of a new standard like M-PHY. We are pleased to be partnering with Tektronix to help move M-PHY adoption forward."

With the latest release, Tektronix Opt. M-PHYTX now automates approximately 1,000 tests for verification and compliance test of all High Speed (HS) Gears including Gear3, and all Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Gears, with the industry’s widest test coverage of both HS (95 percent) and PWM (73 percent) measurements. In addition, a new M-PHYTX differential mode of acquisition enables multi-lane M-PHY setups. This means that four lanes of an M-PHY transmitter can be connected simultaneously to four channels on an oscilloscope providing faster test set-up and shorter run times.

Moving beyond compliance testing to debug & analysis, the Tektronix M-PHYTX test solution along with Tektronix Visual Trigger and DPO-JET Jitter and Timing Analysis enables engineers to quickly and confidently identify debug issues quickly across different test modes and combinations.  For receiver testing, Opt. M-PHYRX uses a highly optimized setup that significantly reduces equipment costs compared to alternatives that require at least three or more instruments with numerous connectors for conducting the stringent M-PHY Receiver tests. Tektronix also provides full protocol decode and analysis solution for M-PHY UniPro and LLI protocols.

"As this latest release demonstrates, supporting the MIPI and M-PHY design community continues to be a top priority for Tektronix," said Brian Reich, general manager, Performance Oscilloscopes, Tektronix. "We were the first to market with M-PHY solutions starting in September 2010, and now offer the industry's most comprehensive, fully-automated test solutions. What’s more we are now partnering with mobile industry leaders such as ST-Ericsson to move adoption of MIPI standards forward."

Availability

The enhanced version of Opt. M-PHYTX is available now worldwide.