Diagnosis of the failing component in RF receivers through adaptive full-path measurements

Abstract

Decreasing profit margins and time-to-market windows for radiofrequency transceivers, rule out the traditional component-based testing and diagnosis methods. Over the past few years, there has been a significant shift in the transceiver test methods towards full-path and loop-back testing. However, the benefits of path-based testing cannot be fully attained unless complimentary diagnosis methods can be developed. In this paper, we present an adaptive diagnosis methodology to identify the failing component in RF receivers. Once the fault type (hard fault or soft fault) is identified using eigensignature correlations, input signals are selected and ambiguity groups determined. A new input signal is applied based on the ambiguity groups until full diagnostic resolution is reached or test inputs are exhausted. While it is typically believed that partitioned parameters, such as the gain of an individual component, cannot be fully diagnosed, the inherently non-linear behavior of analog blocks results in distinguishable response patterns even for scalar parameters. Experimental results confirm that diagnosis using only path-based measurements is viable.