.jpg)
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) recently
announced the industry's first receiver testing solution for secure digital
ultra-high-speed (SD UHS-II) host products and memory card devices.
Unveiled at the SDA event in Osaka,
Japan, N5990A test
automation software Option 120 accelerates accurate
characterization and compliance verification of receiver ports in host products
and memory card devices that support the SD Association's emerging UHS-II
memory card standard. The automated receiver testing solution for the physical layer
is based on Agilent's J-BERT N4903B high-performance serial BERT with
supplementary instruments and accessories.
SD is the leading standard for
removable memory cards for portable consumer products such as cameras, mobile
phones, laptops and GPS receivers. The new UHS-II memory card standard is based
on SD revision 4.0. It provides high-definition video recording, low power
consumption and data rates of up to 1.56 Gb/s for next-generation SD memory
cards, such as SDHC and SDXC.
Design and test engineers face
several challenges when verifying standard compliance and margins of UHS-II
receiver port designs: Many combinations of reference clocks, data rates and
device types multiply test effort. To validate a receiver's stress tolerance,
the pattern generator must allow injecting various types of jitter, such as
random jitter, sinusoidal jitter and intersymbol interference over the complete
data rate and reference clock range. Complex pattern sequencing is required to
bring the device under test into loopback mode and force EIDLE entry and exit
states.
"Agilent has been heavily
involved in the UHS-II test specification working group and is one of the key
early contributors in test methodology discussions," said Miki Takahashi,
director of Signal Integrity Engineering at Granite River Labs. "Agilent's
UHS-II receiver software is an easy-to-use, optimized solution supporting
UHS-II receiver tests that include complex receiver measurements like jitter
calibration."
"For UHS-II host and device
designers, our solution speeds up receiver testing and provides accurate
results for hosts and devices," said Ken Sakata, Agilent's representative
in the SDA UHS TG working group. "The flexible architecture of our J-BERT,
along with our expertise in receiver, transmitter and return loss testing,
allowed us, once again, to address emerging test challenges."
The Agilent receiver test solution
encompasses the J-BERT N4903B
high-performance serial BERT, the N4880A reference
clock multiplier for testing host receivers, the N4877A clock
data recovery for testing devices below 1 Gb/s, anInfiniium 90000
Series oscilloscope, N5990A-120 software
for automating UHS-II receiver testing (developed by Agilent's solution partner
BitifEye), and accessories. UHS-II test fixtures for device and host are
available from Astek in the U.S. and from BitifEye in other countries.
Benefits of the Agilent UHS-II
receiver characterization solution include:
- Support for host testing with the ability to lock the J-BERT pattern generator to the system's reference clock, even under real operating conditions with low voltage levels, slow transition times and spread-spectrum clock modulation.
- Device testing support for point-to-point and ring topologies with the ability to provide a reference clock with coherent and non-coherent jitter.
- Reduced test time from days to hours enabled by the UHS-II receiver-testing software, which simplifies pattern generation for loopback training and automates stress calibration, device and host receiver tests and EIDLE tests.
- Investment protection enabled by using Agilent instruments and test automation software that can be repurposed for accurate characterization for multiple gigabit test applications, such as MIPI™ M-PHY, PCIe®, USB, SATA and DisplayPort.
For UHS-II transmitter testing,
Agilent offers the N6461A automated
test solution for Infiniium 90000 Series oscilloscopes.
More information about the Agilent
UHS-II receiver-testing solution is available at www.agilent.com/find/N4880A.
Photos of the solution are available at www.agilent.com/find/jbert_images.
U.S. Pricing and Availability
The N5990A Option 120 UHS-II
automated receiver test with loopback training software is available now and is
priced at $14,600. One year of free software updates is included.
Agilent's Digital Test Standards
Program
Agilent Digital Test Standards
Program experts are involved in various international standards committees,
including theSD Association, Joint Electronic
Devices Engineering Council, PCI-SIG®, Video
Electronics Standards Association,Serial ATA
International Organization, Serial Attached SCSI (T10), USB-Implementers
Forum, MIPI Alliance, Ethernet
standards (IEEE 802.3), Optical
Internetworking Forum and many others. Agilent's involvement in
these standards groups enables the company to bring the right solutions to
market when customers need them.
About BitifEye
BitifEye Digital Test Solutions GmbH
is an Agilent partner offering test software and accessories that complement
Agilent's product portfolio. Using the BitifEye ValiFrame test automation
software platform (marketed as the Agilent N5990A test automation software
platform), engineers can combine instruments and test accessories into highly
integrated and automated application-specific test systems. Information about
BitifEye is available at www.bitifeye.com.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A)
is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical
analysis, life sciences, diagnostics, electronics and communications. The
company's 20,500 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent
had revenues of $6.9 billion in fiscal 2012. Information about Agilent is
available at www.agilent.com.
MIPI is a licensed trademark of MIPI,
Inc. in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.
PCIe® is a US registered trademark
and/or service mark of PCI-SIG.