Automatic test equipment (ATE) is often used to test a variety of different electronic components. In many cases the electronic components are mounted to a load board, which is a circuit board designed to serve as an interface between the ATE pin electronics card and an electronic component that is being tested. When testing a digital device, measurements can be made of the digital signals produced by the device to characterize the performance of the device under test. Additionally, a variety of digital signals can be input into the device under test to ascertain its robustness. For example, the logic levels of a digital test signal could be varied to test the reliability of the device under test when receiving less than ideal digital signals. In many instances, digital devices must be tested to assure that they meet a certain standard, such as the universal serial bus specification.
The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of the principles described herein and are a part of the specification. The illustrated embodiments are merely examples and do not limit the scope of the disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present systems and methods. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present apparatus, systems and methods may be practiced without these specific details. Reference in the specification to “an embodiment,” “an example” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least that one embodiment, but not necessarily in other embodiments. The various instances of the phrase “in one embodiment” or similar phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Automatic test equipment (ATE) is often used to test a variety of different electronic components including, but not limited to, integrated circuits (ICs), analog pins, universal serial bus (USB) ports, radio frequency (RF) circuits, differentially paired signal circuitry, and digital pins.
A load board is a circuit board designed to serve as an interface between the pin electronics card (PEC) in automatic test equipment and the device under test (DUT). A load board is also known as an interface board or a DUT board. In some examples, a load board includes a number of components that are used to set up the DUT for correct testing by the ATE, route the test and response signals between the DUT and the ATE, and provide additional test capabilities that the ATE may not be able to provide.
An ideal load board introduces no distortion, noise, delays, nor errors to the testing process of the DUT. This means that an ideal load board is one that does not seem to exist at all, i.e., as if the DUT were directly connected to the ATE. However, all load boards are inherently imperfect and as a result, test results of the DUT may sometimes be skewed or inaccurate.
The automated test equipment may also be used to test devices that require digital input or output. Digital signals, particularly high speed signals, may be adversely affected by a variety of elements contained with the test setup. By way of example and not limitation, the capacitance, impedance, trace layout, and time delay inherent in the test setup may alter the digital signals generated by or delivered to the DUT. These altered signals may make it more difficult to analyze the actual performance of the DUT. To reduce the artifacts introduced by the board, a variety of digital signal test circuitry can be introduced onto the load board. The digital test circuitry on the load board can be placed in significantly closer proximity to the DUT, thereby minimizing undesirable artifacts and increasing the accuracy of the testing.
To understand various digital signal parameters that can be tested by circuitry placed on a load board or in another location, several examples of digital signal characteristics are given in
In digital communications these and others parameters can be measured to determine if the signal generating device is functional, compatible with other devices, or meets certain standards. Typically, the higher the frequency of the digital data, the more critical and pronounced various artifacts become.
The high speed serial tester (600) may be comprised of a slew control module (605), delay modules (610, 615), adjust band limit modules (620, 625), peak and slew modules (630, 635, 640, 645), an attenuator (650), and an analog-to-digital converter (655). The pair of differential channels (602) enters the system from the left and proceeds through the modules to the right as shown in
The slew control module (605) can be used to vary the slope of the rising and falling edges of digital signals introduced into the serial bus tester via the differential lines (602). The delay modules (610, 615) maybe controlled by a jitter/randomizer (680) that introduces systematic or randomized delays to simulate jitter on a single signal or alter skew between separate signals.
The adjust band limit modules (620, 625) condition the signal for analog-to-digital conversion. According to one exemplary embodiment, the adjust band limit modules (620, 625) may include a low pass filter which may reduce higher frequency noise artifacts. The peak and slew modules (630, 635, 640, 645) additionally optimize the signal for analog-to-digital conversion by controlling the slew and peak values of the signals. The attenuator (650) scales the signal to be within the range of the analog-to-digital converter (655).
As can be seen from
The control logic module (660) allows for a user interface to the high speed serial tester (600). According to one exemplary embodiment, the control logic module (660) uses a has a serial peripheral interface that allows an outside user or entity to set switches, jitter/randomizer parameters, download data from memory, and adjust other parameters within the high speed serial bus (600). The timing module (665) synchronizes the processing of data and other actions within the high speed serial tester (600) and provides a timing reference. According to one exemplary embodiment, the timing module (665) may comprise a phase lock loop module and an external crystal frequency reference. A power module (670) supplies power to the various components and, according to one exemplary embodiment, may provide power from 1.8 Volts to 7 Volts. A memory module (675) can be used to store instructions, accumulate data from the analog-to-digital converter, maintain calibration parameters, or serve other memory functions. According to one exemplary embodiment, the memory module (675) is accessible through the SPI control logic module (660) to the user.
Advantages of the high speed serial tester (600) include, but are not limited to, the ability to test physical properties of several popular differential bus formats without having to know the protocol layers. The high speed serial tester (600) may be contained within a single integrated circuit or may comprise a plurality of integrated circuits appropriately connected. The high speed serial tester (600) may also be able to simultaneously measure a multiplicity of differential channels by replicating the components and connecting network described in
In some examples, various embodiments of high speed serial testers may be placed on a load board or other locations to test one or more universal serial bus (USB) enabled DUTs. Ensuring that a DUT meets USB compliance standards requires specialized testing including, but not limited to, eye-testing, level testing, termination measurement, jitter testing, and turn-around time testing. With the proliferation of low cost USB devices and increasing speeds at which digital data is communicated between USB devices, a precise and cost effective USB tester is needed.
As shown in
The USB tester (700) components are contained within the dotted line of
Additionally the USB tester (700) may use external references such as an external crystal (718) which is connected to a phase lock loop module (716) internal to the USB tester. The external crystal (718) serves as a frequency reference for the USB tester and may be used in clocking and other functions. A precision external resistor (720) can provide an absolute reference against which internal resistors and other components can be measured. In particular, the external resistor (720) is used to help evaluate the strength of pull downs and pull ups on the data plus (DP) and data minus (DM) lines. The internal resistors that perform the pull down and pull up functions on the data lines are difficult to manufacture to precise absolute values. The external resistor (720) provides a reference against which the values of the internal resistors can be compared. An external voltage source connected to a voltage regulator (714) allows for the variation of current and voltage parameters supplied to the downstream device under test (704).
The VBUS line supplies the power to operate the downstream device. Typically in a USB device the “VBUS” line supplies between 5.25 V and 4.75 V between the “VBUS” line and the “GRD” line. The performance of the downstream device (704) when voltage or current fluctuations are present in power line can be simulated using the voltage regulator (714) and the variable bus module (710). Using these internal components, the voltage supplied to the downstream device (704) can be varied and the response of the downstream device (704) measured. A current measuring module (706) and a voltage measuring module (708) can be placed to measure the amperage and voltage passing through the VBUS line to the downstream device. Using a control module (712), the connection between the upstream host VBUS line in the downstream host VBUS line can be disconnected and reconnected to measure inrush current. Inrush current is the initial current draw of a device as it is starting operation. In some circumstances the inrush current can be significant and draw down the voltage level of the host device. The USB specification places limits on the allowable inrush current for USB devices to prevent a downstream device from causing glitches in the host's internal power.
Similarly the signals passing through the data plus (DP) and data minus (DM) bus lines to the device under test (704) can be manipulated and measured to test the robustness of the device under test (704). By way of example and not limitation, components within the USB tester (700) associated with the data lines may include an impedance tester (722), a jitter set module (726), output scaling (724), emulate control point (740), and other devices.
The jitter set modules (726, 738) can be used to introduce jitter in a single signal train as described in
An output measurement can be made using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) (730) which captures the digital signals supplied to or received from the downstream device (704). These captured digital signals can later be retrieved and analyzed to determine, for example, failure points of the downstream device (704). A jitter measure module (736) may also be included which analyzes the digital data produced by the analog-to-digital converter (730). According to one exemplary embodiment, the analog-to-digital converter (730) operates at high frequencies to resolve the USB data signals at high resolution to allow measurements of slew, over-voltage, under-voltage, jitter, skew, or other parameters.
The impedance module (722) varies the opposition to a time varying current within the electrical circuit or signal path. By way of example and not limitation, impedance module (722) may include resistive impedance or reactive impedance by introducing various resistors, inductors, or capacitors into the signal path. The impedance module (722) may be used in both upstream and downstream data communications. In downstream signals, the impedance module (722) may be used to alter the signal received by the downstream device (704) to test its sensitivity and robustness. In upstream signals, the impedance module (722) can be used to test the signal generation capacity of the downstream device (704) when increasing opposition to the digital signals is imposed on its outputs.
The USB tester (700) may also include an eye logic tester (744) and logging memory (746). The eye logic tester (744) may directly produce an eye diagram or other measurement of the differential signals. An eye diagram is a display in which the digital signal or signals are repetitively sampled and superimposed on each other. The resulting pattern is visually analogous to a series of the eyes between a pair of rails. An example of an eye plot is shown in
The logging memory (746) could be connected to and retrieve data from a variety of sources including the analog-to-digital converter (730), the jitter measurement module (736), the current measurement module (706), the voltage measurement module (708), the eye tester logic (744), the control port (748), the digital bus lines, or other components.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the control port (748) is connected to the control host (750) by a standard USB, SPI, or other communication interface. Additionally, the control port could be connected to a variety of external triggers and packet delay lines. The control port (748) could make connections (not shown) with a variety of other components internal to the USB tester (700). By way of example and not limitation, the control host (750) could transfer control parameters to the control port (748) which could then pass these parameters into the logging memory (746). Additionally, the control port (748) could directly connect to various modules and switches to control and synchronize the various functions within the USB tester (700).
The USB tester (700) may be embodied within a single chip in some examples. Advantages of the USB tester (700) include, but are not limited to, the fact that no special hardware is needed on the PEC to do a full USB validation. The USB tester (700) may also be used as a general consumer troubleshooting product to display the quality of the USB signal on any given peripheral and also to display the endpoint 0 identifier string, etc.
In
According to one exemplary embodiment, control information and measurement data is passed between the control device (750) and the first USB tester (800). Tests relating to the single upstream port of the USB hub (805) are conducted by the first USB tester (800). However, the USB hub device itself transmits control information to the remaining USB testers (810, 815, 820) via its downstream ports. This control information passes through each downstream USB tester (810, 815, 820) and passes out a general downstream port and returns to the control upstream port of the same USB tester. In this way, control information is passed from the control device (750) to the USB testers (800, 810, 815, 820). Following the receipt of control information, the downstream USB testers (810, 815, 820) conduct tests related to the downstream ports of the USB hub (805). Data from these tests is passed from the control upstream port of each of the down stream USB testers (810, 815, 820) back to the general downstream port of the same tester, out through the upstream port, and into the downstream ports of the USB hub (805). The test data continues through the USB hub (805) and out the single upstream port of the USB hub (805) and into the general downstream port of the first USB tester (800) where it is retrieved via the general upstream port by the upstream host (742) or via the control upstream port by the control device (750). The other configurations using USB testers could be implemented to give test various USB devices and hubs. By way of example and not limitation, USB hubs that have a varying number of downstream ports could be tested by utilizing a corresponding number of USB testers in the configuration illustrated in
The preceding description has been presented only to illustrate and describe embodiments and examples of the principles described. This description is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit these principles to any precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/880,111 filed Jan. 11, 2007 entitled “Test Solutions and Methods for Difficult Case Signals Encountered in Automatic Test Equipment.” The afore mentioned application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60880111 | Jan 2007 | US |