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Military/Aerospace Forum Benchtop Power Supplies Teardown: Apple iPad

JULY 2010

In This Issue...

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2010 National Instruments. All rights reserved. LabVIEW, National Instruments, ni.com, and NI TestStand are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 1849

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Vol. 53, No. 2 JULY 2010CONTENTS

11 PRODUCT UPDATECrystals and oscillators

71OUTLOOKDark laser

COVER STORYTEST & MEASUREMENT SPECIAL

27 Our annual look at some of the hot topics and trends in test and measurement29 How scopes deliver 20-GHz bandwidthsand up 34 Moving to LTE-Advanced . . . before LTE arrives! 38 Testing high-performance mixed-signal designs 45 The evolution of real-time testing 48 Measuring and analyzing LED performance 54 Using an oscilloscope to debug the I2C protocol56 Making more accurate high-resistance measurements60 Why should you have a digital pattern generator?

FEATURES

17 Military/Aerospace Forum22 Benchtop Power SuppliesBattery-drain analysis for mobile devices89 Ferrite core takes the lead

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PRODUCT TEARDOWN

64 Whats Inside? ... Apple iPadENERGY-SAVING INITIATIVE SERIES

66 Server rooms shape up and power down67 Blog: Super caps to grow at 20% through 2014

DEPARTMENTS

7 Viewpoint: The view from Crude Beach8 Product of the Year Story Behind the Story:

Isolating pain points brings success

11 OUTLOOK (Technology News) Dark laser produces stable, 90-ps pulse train Super-small thin films can superconduct Cu-on-Si process to speed portable

RF electronics development Flash Memory Summit: Santa Clara, Aug. 17-19

68 Product Roundup: Electromechanical switches 71 Product Update: Crystals and oscillators

NEW PRODUCTS74 Optoelectronics

75 Power Sources

79 Packaging & Interconnections

82 Integrated Circuits

85 Components & Subassemblies

Electronic Products Magazine (USPS 539490) (ISSN 0013-4953)Published monthly by Hearst Business Communications Inc./UTP Division, 50 Charles Lindbergh Blvd., Suite 100, Uniondale, NY 11553. Periodicals postage paid Uniondale, NY and additional mailing offices. Electronic Products is distributed at no charge to qualified persons actively engaged in the application, selection or

procurement of electronic components, instruments, materials, systems and subsystems. The publisher reserves the right to reject any subscription on the basis of information submitted in order to comply with audit regulations. Paid subscriptions available: U.S. subscriber rate $65 per year, 2 years $110. Single issue, $6.00. Information contained herein is subject to change without notice. No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for its accuracy or completeness.Postmaster: Send address changes to Electronic Products, PO Box 3012, Northbrook, Il 60065-3-12. Phone 847-559-7317 2010 by Hearst Business Communications Inc./UTP Division. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Publications Mail Agreement Number 40012807. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Station A PO Box 12, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5

whats ONLINE...electronicproducts.comTesting complex modulated wireless systemsAnritsu, Morgan Hill, CA

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Whats Inside Apple iPad

64

Testing requirements for AdvancedTCA platforms

MEMS testing in mass production STMicroelectronics, Milan, Italy

Web-based IC customization revolutionizes timing circuitsSilicon Laboratories, Austin, TX

Want to see what the Editors are thinking? http://www2.electronicproducts.com/ElectronicProductsBlogs.aspx

and more!

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2010 Cirrus Logic, Inc. All rights reserved. Cirrus Logic, Cirrus, the Cirrus Logic logo designs, EXL Core, and the EXL Core logo design are trademarks of Cirrus Logic, Inc. EP072010

VIEWPOINT

The view fromCrude BeachBased on current news reports, it seems that deep-sea oil exploration technology is lopsided.

For me, summer always seems to be associate with a movie. For instance, A Summer Place, with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue, will always brings back memories of the summer of 1959, which I spent with oth-er teenagers at the beach in Connecticut, and Steven Spielbergs Jaws also reminds me of days on the beach but not in the water in 1975. Unfortunately, I think Ill always associate the summer of 2010 with a video of gal-lons of oil spewing from a twisted, truncated pipe deep in the Gulf of Mexico.

I was watching that video just a few days ago on the New York Times Web site (www.nytimes.com/interactive/ 2010/06/08/us/20100608-oil-spill-live-video-feed-bp.html), ROV cameras from the Skandi Neptune offshore construc-tion vessel showed gas and oil constantly boiling out of the drill casing, while cameras on the Boa Deep Cs Ocea-neering ROVs watched as its robot arms tried to loop ca-bles through steel eyes of equipment that had to be moved. The operation seemed clumsy, until you remem-bered it was being done a mile underwater.

All in all, the technology being used seems pretty amazing; the tele-presence does make you feel as if you are actually on the ocean floor, and the machines are managing to do some amazing things. It just seems as if the technology available to cope with the problem is not enough and a bit too late.

Based on current news reports, it seems that deep-sea oil exploration technology is lopsided. The technology being used to discover and extract oil is well funded and

highly advanced. The technology that isnt being unwrit-ten and pushed ahead is that for coping with potential problems and events that have led to todays ecological disaster.

Its not hard to understand why thats the case. Any executive can go to the companys board and say, Im going to spend $X million to increase our productivity, and thus improve our bottom line by $XX million. But if he or she were to say, Im going to spend $X million on equipment we may not need, and it wont improve our profits unless a disaster occurs, that person is likely to soon be sailing through the skies on a golden parachute.

While the ultimate way to prevent such spills from happening is to stop being heavily dependent on oil, that isnt likely to happen in the near future. And alternative energy may present problems we have yet to realize. If we are going to field advanced technology, were going to have to spend more time thinking about its risks and pre-paring to cope with them.

The only practical way to balance the application of technology to deep-sea oil exploration is to mandate that companies that are granted drilling licenses show that they are able to rapidly respond to a crisis in a way that prevents it from becoming an environmental disaster. Then all well have to worry about when we go to the beach in the summer is attacks by Great Whites.

Richard [email protected]


The Akros AS1854 power SoC is a game changer for PoE-powered devices. This Product of the Year winner is the first to have a 2-kV isola-tion barrier and integrate the function-ality of numerous ICs and passive com-ponents into a single package. As with all cutting-edge technology it didnt come to fruition without difficulties.

The major challenge at the outset was designing the high-voltage isola-tion integrated with a power SoC. The requirement was to create a physical isolation barrier that can withstand 4-kVrms separation and 25-kV/s transients without disrupt-ing high-speed data transfer between the two sides of the IC. These are ex-

tremely difficult specifications to follow for any material, let alone im-plementing them in a bulk CMOS process. The 15-member design team even had to develop unique ways to physically model in 3-D the material and packaging to ensure the chip could withstand the high voltages and transients. And all of this was done on a shoe-string startup budget in just two years.

The idea and necessity for the de-sign the company calls the GreenEdge technology came while working with customers who were creating power-system designs for various IP-connect-

ed equipment. These OEMs had so-phisticated methods to monitor and control logic circuits from remote management software, but were chal-lenged with lack of management and control available in power sub-sys-tems. The Akros team worked with OEMs to understand the pain points involved and trade-offs needed.

GreenEdge technology was the re-sult and helped eliminate the tradi-tional information and communica-tion barrier that existed between high-voltage power domains and low-voltage software domains. It bridges the gap between real-time decision-making software (local or remote) and the power subsystem; providing a su-

perior end-to-end energy manage-ment architecture. The isolation tech-nology enables complete remote monitoring and control of IP appli-ance power subsystems, making net-work-based energy management a practical reality. It reduces space by 40%, system BoM cost by 25%, and provides efficiencies exceeding 90%. Currently, no other digital isolation technology exists in the industry that is specifically targeted and used for power-system cost and efficiency opti-mization, or designed to enable net-work-based energy management.

Paul OShea

Isolating pain points brings success

The AS1854 integrates high-voltage isolation and quad-output digital power dc/dc converters in a single device with minimal external components and no optocouplers

EDITORIAL STAFF 516-227-1300 FAX: 516-227-1444

Managing Editor Bryan DeLuca

Senior Editor Paul OSheaPower Sources, Power Management,Discrete Semiconductors, Circuit Protection, Cooling Devices941-359-8684 [email protected]

Editor Christina NickolasAnalog/Mixed-Signal ICs, Analog EDA Software, Oscillators, Electromechanical Switches, Prototyping Tools, Microwave Components516-227-1459 [email protected]

Technical Editor Jim HarrisonDigital ICs, Boards & Peripherals, Development Tools, Motors & Controls 415-456-1404 [email protected]

Editor Richard ComerfordTest & Measurement, Optoelectronics, Sensors & Transducers, Enclosures, Cabinets, Chassis516-227-1433 [email protected]

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News about Products... Product Technology... Product ApplicationsOUTLOOK


Dark laser producesstable, 90-ps pulse trainMode-locked diode laser uses quantum dots to produce

soliton-like output that may suit measurement, communication

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards, Boul-der, CO, and at the University of Colorado, Boulder have developed a passively mode-locked quantum-dot diode laser whose output consists of a train of dark pulses, that is, dips in intensity from a continuous background. The lasers ultrashort pulses as little as 90 ps at 1,168 nm not only make it suitable for short-time measurements, but may also bene t communications applications because the pulses generally propagate without distortion.

The team fabricated an external-cavity semi-conductor diode laser (see gure) using a 5-mm-long single-mode semiconductor ridge wave-guide with InGaAs self-assembled quantum dots buried in the core as the gain section. The dots are all about the same size about 10 nm in diameter and all emit light at the same frequency. The quantum dots complex gain dy-namics provide the exibility needed to operate where dark pulses are stable.

Light ampli ed by the quantum-dot active region is collimated, ltered by a Fabry-Perot etalon, and focused on a saturable absorber to initiate mode-locking. The saturable absorbing medium consists of a few intentionally damaged semiconductor wells grown in an integrated resonant structure to increase the electric eld intensity and lower the saturation radiative ux over time ( uence). The absorber structure also acts as an end mirror for the laser cavity. The Fabry-Perot etalon, which has a transmission bandwidth of 10 nm, provides spectral ltering to tune and restrict the lasing bandwidth. The at facet of the semiconductor diode is used as the output cou-pler with a re ectivity of approximately 35%. When the laser cavity is well aligned, lasing action occurs with 60 mA of current injected into the gain medium.

A close analogy to the dark pulses are dark optical soli-tons, which are solutions to the nonlinear Schrdinger equation. The equation describes propagation in nonlin-ear media such as optical ber, but it does not contain

dissipative terms such as gain, loss, and saturation, which are present in a mode-locked laser. Optical dark solitons are predict-ed to have many properties of practical importance such as ex-

istence in the normal dispersion regime, lack of a thresh-old, and resistance to Gordon-Haus jitter. The dark pulse is a straightforward solution to the linearized version of the equation that describes the operation of a passively mode-locked laser. While having similarities to dark soli-tons, the pulses, the researchers believe, are not actually dark solitons, as they are not transform limited.

Dark pulse generation has previously been observed in semiconductor ampli ers after injection of a bright pulse, but the pulse train was not stable and eventually decayed. To determine if their dark-pulse solution was stable, the team performed simulations for the full (not linearized) equation and found that the parameters of the laser fall into the range predicted to have stable dark pulses. For further information, e-mail Steven T. Cundiff at [email protected].

Richard Comerford

The external-cavity quantum-dot diode laser shown here in schematic form can stably produce pulses approximately 90 ps wide when the light output nearly shuts down about every 2.5 ns.

Scientists from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have worked together to create thin lms that superconduct when cooled below 30 K (243C). Led by physicist Ivan Bozovic, the Brookhaven team used mo-

lecular beam epitaxy to build a material with alternating layers of copper-oxide, lanthanum, and strontium, a tech-nique previously used to produce thin lms that retain su-perconductivity within a single copper-oxide layer.

The team at Bar-Ilan then used electron-beam lithog-

Super-small thin films can superconduct

OUTLOOK


Cu-on-Si process to speed portable RF electronics development

ON Semiconductor (Phoenix, AZ) recently an-nounced a new integrated passive device (IPD) process technology, an enhancement to the com-panys existing HighQ copper (Cu)-on-silicon (Si) IPD technology, which promises to enable fast development

of cost-effective RF front-end products. Dubbed IPD2, the new 8-in.-wafer process features a second 5-m copper layer that increases inductor performance, allows greater exibility, and supports the design of highly precise, cost-effective IPDs for RF system-in-package applications in

A fragment of superconducting thin film, patterned with nanoloops that measure 150 nm on a side (small) and 500 nm on a side (large), where the nanowires making up each loop have a diameter of 25 nm.

raphy to etch a pattern of thousands of loops into the surface of the material, forming nanowires on the sides of these loops that measured 25 nm in diameter and 150 to 500 nm in length. When measured, electrical re-sistance of the patterned arrays showed that they were indeed superconducting when cooled below about 30 K. The scientists also noted that when an external magnetic eld was applied perpendicular to the loops, the loop resistance did not continue to increase steadily, but rather changed up and down in an oscillatory manner. These oscillations in resistance have a large amplitude, and their frequency corresponds to discrete units (quan-ta) of magnetic ux the measure of the strength of the magnetic eld piercing the loops, Bo-zovic said. A material with such a discrete, switchable

form of magneto-resistance especially from the superconducting to the non-supercon-ducting state could be extremely useful for engineering new devices.

The frequency of the oscillations in resis-tance may also hold some insight as to why copper-oxide materials become superconduc-tors in the rst place, and potentially lead to further designs for new materials.

The research appears in the June 13, 2010, online issue of Nature Nanotechnology (www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nnano.2010.111.html), and is supported by the DOEs Of ce of Science, by the German Re-search Foundation through a German-Israeli cooperative agreement, and by a scholarship

granted by the Israel Ministry of Science.Christina DAiro

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OUTLOOK


Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, August 17 to 19

Spending a little time at this years Flash Memory Summit (Aug. 17 to 19) at the Santa Clara Conven-tion Center* could pay big returns in knowledge gained about this high- ying technology. New applica-tions seem to arrive daily for this low-cost storage medi-um. We have some information for you on a few of the companies that will be exhibiting there.

Anobit (Herzeliya Pituach, Israel) will show you the Genesis SSD, which uses Memory Signal Processing (MSP) technology to deliver lower cost as the rst-ever MLC-based SSDs to provide the enterprise-grade reliability and performance previously achievable only by SLC devices. Denali (Sunnyvale, CA) will tell you all about its Dataplex host software product, which delivers dramatic perfor-mance gains using a small NAND ash SSD paired with a standard HDD. Dataplex uses intelligent, adaptive cach-ing algorithms to store hot data and applications in an SSD cache, while all other data resides on the HDD.

Intel (Santa Clara, CA) will be demonstrating its X25-V high-value SATA SSD drive, which is aimed at netbooks and dual-drive/boot-drive desktop setups. The affordable $125 40-Gbyte drive yields up to 43% faster system per-formance when used as a boot drive in a dual-drive desk-top PC setup. Another interesting con gu-ration is two X25-V drives in a RAID 0 setup. JDSU (Milpi-tas, CA) will offer the Xgig LXP 6-Gbit/s SAS/SATA de-velopment system, which offers host and target emulation, as well as error injection and analysis capabilities. This multipurpose tool helps users overcome high-speed serial design chal-lenges and accelerates development of storage subsys-tems.

LeCroy (Chestnut Ridge, NY) will have on hand its next-generation USB test tools, which can help acceler-ate development of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices. LeC-

roys Voyager analyzer provides full support for the new USB At-tached SCSI (UAS) protocol and can em-ulate real UAS host operations to help optimize SuperSpeed

performance. Mosaid (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) will be showing the HLNAND SSD prototype, which uses a

INDILINX controller and multiple 64 Gbyte HyperLink NAND ash modules. With a standard SATA 2.0 system interface it achieves 220 Mbyte/s read and 142 Mbyte/s write performance.

OCZ Technology (San Jose, CA) will show the Sand-Force-based Deneva SSDs, which pro-

vide the demanding performance and reliability needed for enterprise-class

storage and computing ap-plications and feature vari-ous OEM-speci c options. Meanwhile, SandForce (Saratoga, CA) will demon-strate its SSD processors which address the inher-ent endurance, reliability, and data retention issues associated with MLC ash,

making it possible to build SSDs that deliver superior per-formance and reliability for broad-based deployment in enterprise applications.

Sandisk (Milpitas, CA) would like to show you the SSD P4, which is ideal for use in small computing devices such as netbooks, smartbooks, and tablet computers. The durable device offer low power consumption and fast performance in capacities from 8 to 128 Gbytes. Silicon Motion Technol-ogy (Jhubei City, Taiwan, ROC) can show you the SM2250 8-channel SSD controller designed to provide high IOPS performance for notebook, enterprise, servers, and high-end workstation applications. Compliant with SATA II, the chip features advanced NCQ functions and a powerful 40-bit BCH ECC engine.

SMART Modular Technolo-gies (Newark, CA) will demon-strate the XceedIOPS 1.8- or 2.5-in. SATA SSD, which is available in 50 to 400 Gbytes and features E-MLC NAND technology. The SSD delivers 250-Mbyte/s sequential read/write speeds and up to 30,000 random input/output opera-tions/s. STEC (Santa Ana, CA) will show the ZeusIOPS enter-prise solid-state drive, which enables storage systems to re-lieve performance bottlenecks.

Jim Harrison

The JDSU Xgig LXP SAS/SATA development system has advanced error injection capabilities.

LeCroys Voyager analyzer provides full support for the USB Attached SCSI (UAS) protocol.

SandForce will demonstrate its SSD processors.

SMART Modulars XceedIOPS 1.8- or 2.5-in. SATA SSD is available in 50 to 400 Gbytes.

*For more on this years Flash Memory Summit at the Santa Clara Convention Center, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com.

portable electronics equipment.Typical IPD2-based designs will include baluns, low-

pass and bandpass lters, and diplexers used in the latest portable and wireless applications. This process will be

supported with a comprehensive set of design tools and technical assistance, plus prototyping capabilities. For more information, visit http://www.onsemi.com.

Christina Nickolas

How can I tell if a power supply is reliable?

2010 Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Theres an indicator on the front.It says Agilent. With a typical MTBF of 40,000 hours, over half-a-century of experience, and with more than 250 models to choose from, Agilents power supplies are the ones you can count on. In fact the array of our power supplies is so extensive, it wouldnt fit on this page. For clean, low-noise, programmable power to countless DUTs, theres an Agilent power supply with your name on it. Actually, its our name on it, but you know what we mean.

For free measurement tips and the Agilent Power Products brochure go to www.agilent.com/find/powertips

File: 06079_COB_Power_EP_Newark_MarDocket/Job: 06079Client: Agilent

Trim: 7.875" (w) x 10.5" (h)Live: 6.875" x 9.5 Bleed: +0.125"

Publication: Electronic ProductsInsertion Date: March 2010Colours: CMYK

Art Director: U.S. pick up Copywriter: U.S. pick upMac Artist: jen

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Military/aerospace suppliers face a special challenge to provide products that meet exacting requirements for safety in rigorous environments, and yet they must also provide these products at competitive prices . Some of the is-sues for todays suppliers include commercial off-the-shelf usage de-signed for long-term reliability, deal-ing with counterfeiting, RoHS issues, and the need for upscreening.

Electronic Products: Are COTS products an important piece of the total cost reduction solution? And is long-term reliability being affected?

Brad Little (High Reliability Product Manager, Texas Instruments): You have to look at this in a bigger picture;

what are we com-paring against? Are we comparing to SCD drawings and looking at that total cost or are we talk-ing about particular applications or en-vironments that

this may be a suitable solution for? From a cost standpoint, I think

thats a pretty difficult question to answer as youve got to weigh the risk and reward from using commer-cial off-the-shelf products, which may only be suitable for certain ap-plications.

Bill Toumey (Vertical Segment Man-ager, Arrow Electronics): I view COTS [commercial off the shelf] as being non-SCD [source control drawings], what you are buying are standard catalog items . . . you could be buying Mil spec parts example, JAN 38510 or 5962 or MIL-Pref 19500s . . . what you

Experts talk about problems with counterfeiting, ITAR controls, and the affect of COTS on long-term reliability

are buying are stan-dard catalog items.

Buying a full Mil-tested part an-swers the question on long-term reli-ability and by vir-tue of the products being standard cat-

alog items that would indicate a pub-lished market price, avoiding cost associated with custom devices. So if that would be the case I think that takes that question of long-term reli-ability out or at least the customers buying a tested product. Is that part of that definition, Brad when you...

Brad Little: Yes, I agree with you on that.

John OBoyle (Business Manager, Mil/Aero Products, Maxim Integrated Prod-ucts): Yeah, we see a lot more move-ment towards COTS, probably three quarters of the business that we do

with the military aerospace commu-nity today is com-mercial off-the-shelf parts. But they still want them with lead finish. So a lot of times theyre buying the parts lead-free

and then refinishing them. But they cant retest them after they refinish them, which creates a serious problem because they use outside refinishers, who are not set up to do the same level of test as the original manufacturer.

The outside refinishers can do shorts and opens and that sort of thing, but they cant test the func-tionality and if they cycle them to a higher temperature they could dam-age the parts. So there are a lot of hidden problems in this approach. ESD also comes into play here.

So what we do is we offer our cus-tomers a program where we supply lead finished parts for the mil/aero customers. Those come fully tested on our final QA programs. Its the same test program we use for the lead-free part. So the customer is getting, like Bill and Brad were commenting, fully tested parts. My concern is when they take a part and just refinish it and plug it onto a board and then it fails, say, 200 hours into the field. Thats a serious issue, like if the land-ing gear doesnt go down.

Bill Toumey: Not to contradict what John said, many customers are tin/solder-dipping parts and it could cause serious quality issues if the hot solder comes too close to the case, which could cause the seal to crack. Regarding electrical testing, many of the third-party test houses that per-form the solder-dipping cannot per-form the same level of electrical test-ing as the manufacturers themselves.

John OBoyle: Thats true. We know how to test our parts because we designed them and built them. We know where the weak spots are so well stress those more. Not that theres any weak spots in any of our parts, of course.

We know how to test them, and test houses dont. So theyll test for basic functionality, but theres a lot of things that are built into parts that we test that never end up on a datasheet.

So Im just basically raising a red flag. You need to be careful. Say youre putting a refinished part into a handheld radio its probably not a big deal. If you refinish the part and it fails in the field, it is not as serious as a failure on a critical aircraft sys-tem. But if the part is on, say, the landing gear on a military aircraft

CONVENED AND MODERATED BY PAUL OSHEA

Military/Aerospace Forum

TECHNOLOGYROUNDTABLE


and it doesnt go down when its sup-posed to, well thats real embarrass-ing. That actually did happen in the past year on an upscreened part.

Wes Morgan (Director of Product Management, ITT): Usage of COTS components requires adoption of the manufacturers specification by the customer. The manufacturers specification should be based on testing related to reliability.

TECHNOLOGY ROUNDTABLE


When the cus-tomer agrees to adopt the manu-facturers specifica-tion, long-term re-liability is not compromised, un-less the manufac-turers specifica-

tion is not adequate to meet the reliability requirements of the cus-

tomers application.Electronic Products: How do you

see the advent of stricter ITAR con-trols in the U.S. impacting your ability to sell and export our reli-ability dual use items as compared to the past?

George Karalias (Director of Mar-keting, Rochester Electronics): It seems like itll probably be getting stricter. As far as our business is concerned with EOL and mature semiconductors,

theres pretty much a standard list of what can and cant go, and its estab-lished. So we actual-ly arent as affected, or our customers arent as affected sig-nificantly, as a next-

generation technology provider. We definitely adhere to ITAR

very much so. But with all thats go-ing on, it seems like, from what we hear within the government and even through the SIA Anti-Counter-feiting Task Force, ITAR probably will have ramifications that I dont think will ever go away.

Brad Little: Globally, we do see an increased concern, for instance, at our European customer base where there seems to be a trend to buy ITAR-free products. So we do see some potential impact in regards to our international business

Wes Morgan: Stricter ITAR con-trols have impacted the ability of many U.S. companies that provide state controlled articles as part of their product offering. Although this can be mitigated through standard-ization efforts to build commercial offerings, it requires additional time and effort to get into a compliant sta-tus once an ITAR controlled base has been established.

John OBoyle: Ive talked to my European cus-tomers and they try to avoid buy-ing parts from U.S. suppliers that are subject to ITAR or gov-ernment com-merce export controls. So it has an adverse affect on our business because our customers are


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buying products from other vendors overseas rather than buying from us simply because theyre trying to avoid having to do the registration/export licensing.

The military guys overseas really dont like to be telling the U.S. gov-ernment what theyre doing in terms of buying a part. Obviously they do it if the only place they get it is from the U.S. vendor. And its not just

with Maxim, its with everybody and its pretty widespread. Ive heard the same comment from more than one customer over there.

Electronic Products: How sig-nificant is the problem of counter-feiting in the mil/aero industry? And the second part of that ques-tion would be what steps are you taking to protect your company or customers from procuring counter-

feit components?Bill Toumey: Ill just give you a

stat I pulled up on a report I was looking at a couple of weeks ago from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Of-fice of Technology Evaluation dated January 2010. In 2005 there were 3,868 reported incidences of coun-terfeit products. In 2008 that num-ber was 9,356.

I dare to say that based on some of the [data] that Ive seen thus far this year that number will probably be up again. In the past, I think a lot of the Ill call it noncore distribution companies, brokers, independents and gray market folks were used primarily to locate obsolete prod-ucts, products that are not be in pro-duction today.

It appears that some of the lots that are being identified as counter-feit were procured by major custom-ers in support of production. This is troubling. I understood that in the past it was acceptable to use every potential source looking for these hard to find / odd parts, you search the world. But now when produc-tion-like quantities are showing up from these, unnamed sources that is troubling.

Brad Little: I think Bill gave a good overview. At TI, we strongly encour-age customers to only buy through authorized TI distributors or TI sales. We also have a counterfeiting task group that we formed to tackle this issue and work with the SIA and gov-ernment agencies to protect our cus-tomers from counterfeit products.

So we do see it as a serious issue and were treating it as such. And I also think it goes along with the first question when you were talking about using COTS and Bill high-lighted the increasing obsolescence issues that the aerospace industry faces. This has helped to enable bro-kers and grey market suppliers to come in and fill the component availability gaps.

John OBoyle: We have the same policy that people only buy through authorized distributors, but we still get a lot of parts counterfeited. And I had a customer recently that said that since they couldnt get the part from us they were going to go to the gray market. They told me point blank.

TECHNOLOGY ROUNDTABLE



I said, Do what you want, but we have knowledge of every single part. This is a mil-spec part and ev-ery single part that Ive shipped of this part number has gone to, and I listed the customers; no parts ex-ist in the gray market. So if youre going to get something, its going to be a re-marked part with the right number of leads. Youll be lucky if it even works.

Wes Morgan: Counterfitting does not seem to be a high-level problem for us. To protect our com-pany and customers we include date code/Mintmark information that helps to correctly identify the source of manufacturing.

Bill Toumey: The OEM customer-base holds us to very strict guidelines here in the channel. At Arrow, we only buy from our franchise sources, and I dont think the industry should be going outside the franchise chan-nel. One recent example of third part testing had the end customer here in the States ask for Group A only, no X-ray, no DPA their lot was more than 38% counterfeit. I dont believe the

industry should be going outside the franchise channel. .

George Karalias: I totally agree with Bill from Arrow. We find that people say they have to go to the gray market. Weve found that the problem is exacerbated by a lot of the procurement procedures that are in place within government or indus-try, and the testing and inspection, as Bill said, is really, in a lot of cases, just highly inadequate.

The other part of it is the commu-nication within the industry and the government in talking about what the situation is. This is also a short-coming, which is getting better. I mean back when we started to talk about this and had a symposium on the counterfeiting problem in 2006, it was really a lot of hush-hush. But now its definitely coming to the forefront, and weve found a lot of cooperation out there as far as people talking about it and seeing how the problem can be remedied.

Electronic Products: Well how do you know a part is counterfeit? Im as-suming you have to take apart a prod-

uct to see, is that correct? Lets just say, anything thats electronic you pull it apart and youre looking for what?

George Karalias: The part that has to be tested and looked at with that kind of scrutiny is subject to question-able reliability to begin with. Especial-ly for military. As both John and Bill know and Brad, once you leave the au-thorized channel, then its free rein. Its the Wild West, and you dont know what youre going to end up with be-cause, if you have that traceability with a legitimate C of C and legitimate paperwork that traces back to TI or Maxim or anywhere, its your only sure bet to avoid the counterfeit prob-lem. If you do even have parts that you feel are legitimate, but you want to go through the testing process, it really has to be done with the original test programs the original processes that were done by the original manufac-turer. Oftentimes you dont have suf-ficient testing to really tell you whats going on with a component if its not an authorized testing process.

Read the full version of the forum online at electronicproducts.com

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Battery operating time is a criti-cal factor in the design of mo-bile devices. Many mobile de-vices incorporate greater functionality, which can quickly reduce runtime. Engineers must employ complex pow-er-management schemes to get the most runtime out of the battery.

To assess runtime, engineers use battery drain analysis, which entails characterizing the device, its firm-ware/software, and its subcircuits, both independently and in combi-nation as a system. Analysis tech-niques include characterizing the battery current drain and how it is affected by the various operating modes and use profiles. With this analysis, engineers can make power management design tradeoffs that maximize battery life.

Most power management systems conserve battery power by putting to sleep, on a sub-millisecond time scale, subsystems that are not active-ly in use. The result is that the device draws a rapidly changing current with on/off events that can take place in a fraction of a second. For example, a GSM cell phone can have 560-s, 2-A pulses when transmit-ting and then drop back down to milliamp levels during sleep periods, when in standby mode

Validating battery timeOne approach to validating battery-operating time is to use a voltage rundown test where a fully charged battery powers the device under test (DUT) in the operating mode to be validated until the battery dies. This test can be relatively time-consum-

Battery-drain analysis for mobile devices

Understanding battery drain lets designer use complex power-management schemes to increase device runtime

BY EDWARD BROREIN and BOB ZOLLOAgilent TechnologiesSanta Clara, CAhttp://www.agilent.com

Fig. 1. There are several elements in a generic, ideal system for battery current-drain measurement and analysis.

ing as it runs to completion to iden-tify the voltage shutdown point to determine operating time. Also, the results depend on the initial state of the battery, which can vary consid-erably.

An alternative approach is to per-form a current-drain measurement that provides a higher confidence in operating time measurement. The DUT is placed in the operating mode to be evaluated for a short period of time, and the current drain is mea-sured during that specific operating mode. The operating time is then calculated by dividing the nominal battery capacity by the measured current drain. With this method, a designer doesnt have to wait for the battery to fully discharge to deter-mine runtime.

Elements of an ideal systemIn an ideal system for performing battery drain analysis (see Fig. 1), A means for placing the DUT into the appropriate operating mode for the desired testing (DUT stimulus) is the first thing needed. For mobile phones, a base-station emulator is usually employed.

Second, a means of properly pow-ering the DUT is required, using ei-ther a battery or a power supply. A power supply is useful for testing the DUT independent of its battery to ensure consistency of test or to quickly replicate various battery states without having to wait for the battery to reach those states (fully charged, partially discharged, fully discharged/end-of-life).

Other important system elements are a current transducer for measur-ing current, a digitizer to log the voltage and current signals and soft-ware for analyzing and storing test data, which can be massive up to gigabytes for long-term tests.

Measurement considerationsBattery drain analysis using a power supply allows the DUT to be charac-terized independently of its battery. The power supply must have fast re-sponse to minimize transient voltage droop resulting from fast-slewing cur-rent pulses drawn by the DUT as it switches modes or transmits pulses. Many general-purpose power sup-plies can exhibit up to 1 V of tran-


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sient droop under these conditions, so a specialized pow-er supply (sometimes called a battery-emulating power supply) that can tolerate these conditions without voltage droop should be used.

The rapidly changing current waveforms flowing from the battery into the mobile device present two measure-ment challenges: range and speed. First, the dynamic range of current can be greater than 1000:1 or even 1,000,000:1. With full power active currents on the order of 1 to 3 A, and with low-sleep-mode-level currents on the order of tens of microamperes, the range of current to be measured creates a challenge for selecting a current transducer.

A current-sense resistor, or current shunt, could be used but selecting the appropriate sized current shunt can be a challenge. If the shunt is sized to measure the lowest current, there will be a large voltage drop across the shunt during the high-current events, and this will place an un-bearable burden voltage on the circuit. If the shunt is sized for the high current, there will most likely not be enough voltage to measure when microamperes are flow-ing. By going with several shunts for different sized mea-surements, an engineer can solve the signal level issue,

Fig. 2. The current-drain waveform of the RF power amplifier of a cdma2000 handset is complex and unpredictable when viewed in the time domain (above). The same current waveform viewed in a CCDF graph (below) lets designers easily see how often the device is in each current state.

Battery-drain analysis for mobile devices

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but then switching shunts means in-terrupting the measurement.

With respect to measurement speed, the digitizer measures the current shunt voltage and the bias voltage to the mobile device should have a sample rate of 50 kHz or faster to capture sub-millisecond pulses characteristic of sophisticated power management schemes.

Simplifying complex analysisCommunications systems such as 3G employ complex modulation for-mats, characterized by high levels of amplitude modulation required to transmit higher data rates. The re-sulting current-drain waveforms are complex and random when viewed in the time domain.

The current drain versus time for an RF power amplifier of a cdma2000 handset transmitting with three data channels (see Fig. 2a) becomes more complex and unpredictable when run over long periods with varying operation. This scenario is typical for a battery operating-time

test, and it is difficult to observe the effects of design changes on current drain.

A better way to visualize and ana-lyze complex current-drain patterns is to examine their statistical distri-bution, using a complimentary cu-mulative distribution function (CCDF) graph. A CCDF graph will plot current along the x-axis versus its cumulative percent of occurrence on the y-axis (see Fig. 2b).

By looking at the statistical dis-tribution of how much current is being drawn, a designer can quickly see how often a device operates in each current state. Comparing these CCDF charts for various designs shows when the device consumes more power (that is, spends an in-creased percentage of its time in a high-current state) or when it con-sumes less power (i.e., spends an in-creased portion of its time in a low-current state). Therefore, an engineer can evaluate when a design is better (takes less power) or identify a de-sign flaw (unexpectedly takes more power).

Off-the-shelf solutionsSeveral test equipment vendors make products that address various parts of the desired test system. Some vendors offer power supplies that can provide a stable, battery-like output when rapid current puls-es are drawn.

An entry level solution is the Agi-lent Technologies 66300 Series of Mobile Communications DC Sourc-es. The series is purpose-built for powering a mobile device and si-multaneously measuring its current consumption. It integrates a bat-tery-emulating power supply with a high-speed digitizing measurement system similar to an oscilloscope and can provide accurate current measurements for a devices active, standby and off modes.

This dc source and its companion turnkey software lets users see their current waveforms in a scope-like view, a data-logger view, and on a CCDF chart, without any program-ming. If more accuracy and higher acquisition speeds are needed, other solutions are also available.

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The year 2009 saw the rise of third-generation serial busses such as USB and SATA, and 2010 will see PCIe gen3 with a data rate of 8 Gbits/s and fourth genera-tion SAS serial bus at 12 Gbits/s. In addition to increasing data rates for serial busses, the idea of directly dig-itizing signals above the X-Band (25 GHz) has become more common in applications such as satellites. Opti-cal applications operating at 100 Gbits/s and greater are becoming in-creasingly more popular.

Until 2007, technologies such as these required down conversion or testing with measurement equip-ment unrelated to real-time oscillo-scopes. Now designers can use real time oscilloscope to test third- and fourth-generation serial busses, check direct- digitize signals above the X-band, and easily make 100-Gbaud optical measurements. Since several suppliers now offer band-widths greater than 16 GHz in their oscilloscopes, using different hard-ware and software techniques, it is important to understand the trad-eoffs they make to achieve high bandwidth.

Raw hardware performanceThe most difficult way to achieve bandwidths greater than 20 GHz is through raw hardware performance. A real-time oscilloscope vendor must invest in multiple chips that are rat-ed to these bandwidths (including the preamplifier).

Processes are need that produce a transistor cutoff frequency greater than 150 GHz; these processes are ex-pensive and not common. For an os-

How scopes deliver20-GHz bandwidths and upUnderstanding new techniques used to capture high-speed bus

signals makes choosing the appropriate instrument easiercilloscope vendor, the expense is even greater than computer manufactur-ers, as the former is unable to benefit from economies of scale. Even with

the right processes, the oscilloscope supplier must be able to design in this high speed environment.

For example, for its 90000 X-Series oscilloscope, Agilent cre-ated a proprietary Indium Phosphide (InP) technol-ogy with a cutoff fre-quency of 200 GHz. Thus the highest bandwidth unit in the series, the DSAX93204A, achieves its full 32 GHz with no additional hardware and software techniques. As a result, the oscilloscopes noise density is the same from 31 to 32 GHz as it is from 1 to 2 GHz. In addition to high bandwidth chips (see Fig. 1), the DSAX93204A uses new packaging techniques to ensure that the InP chips can run at full bandwidth with-out overheating.

Currently, other suppliers use sil-icon germanium to achieve their scopes bandwidth; the process they

are using has a cutoff frequency close to 110 GHz, so their preamplifier bandwidth is equal to 16 GHz. It is possible to achieve a 200-GHz cutoff frequency without abandoning sili-con germanium. For example, IBMs 8HP process has a 207-GHz cutoff frequency.

Another benefit of developing high-bandwidth hardware perfor-mance is that the probing can use the same chip process and achieve high bandwidth as well. In the case of Agilent, its probing system achieves 30 GHz.

Raw hardware performances big-gest drawback is that it takes signifi-cant time and investment to develop what is often referred to as true-ana-log bandwidth at the high frequen-cies encountered by oscilloscope us-ers today. And just because an oscilloscope has hardware perfor-mance to high bandwidth, it is still very important to understand how

well it was designed; the front end of an oscilloscope could still have high noise if not designed correctly.

Frequency interleavingTo achieve a 30-GHz bandwidth, some oscilloscope designers have chosen to use uses a technique known as frequency interleaving. A

BY BRIG ASAYAgilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CAhttp://www.agilent.com

Chip process technologies available for oscilloscope vendors

Process Company Cutoff freq. (GHz)

HBT (InP) Agilent 2008HP (SiGe) IBM 207

B7HF200 (SiGe) Infineon 2007HP (SiGe) IBM 110

BiCMOS 9MW (SiGe) STMicro 230SG25H1 (SiGe) IHP 190

Fig. 1. This multichip module was developed for the 90000 X-Series oscilloscope.


technique used in the RF world for many years, frequency interleaving is different than the traditional in-terleaving of the ADCs used by oscil-loscope vendors.

All oscilloscope vendors tradi-tionally interleave channel resources such as memory and ADCs to obtain high sample rate and deeper memory depth. For example the Infiniium DSAX93204A interleaves four 20-Gsample/s ADCs to obtain an 80-Gsample/s rate. However, until the use of frequency interleaving, the in-terleaving techniques were only done post acquisition and could only be tightly controlled using highly ac-curate clocks inside the oscillo-scope.

Even so, interleaving errors still occur in todays oscilloscopes. This causes increases in the oscilloscopes total harmonic distortion (THD); in most cases, the increase in THD is a worthwhile tradeoff for higher sam-ple rate.

Frequency interleaving, which re-quires additional hardware and ad-vanced digital signal processing, takes this idea of interleaving to a new level. Not only does a vendor in-terleave after the acquisition has tak-en place, but during the acquisition itself. This means that a signal is ac-tually interleaved twice during the entire acquisition process.

To understand how frequency in-terleaving works, consider a signal. The signal enters the oscilloscope and is immediately split by a diplexer, into multiple frequency bands high fre-quency components and then low fre-quency components. The low frequen-cy components are equivalent to the actual analog performance of the os-

cilloscope, currently limited to 16 GHz.

The high-frequen-cy components are immediately down-converted to have fre-quency components that the oscilloscope hardware can handle. For example, if an os-cilloscope has analog performance to 16 GHz, but the vendor uses frequency inter-leaving to achieve 30 GHz, then frequency components to 16

GHz would not be down-converted, but all components greater than 16 GHz will immediately be passed through the down-converter.

The two frequency components then go through significant digital signal processing to ensure the high-

frequency component was correctly acquired. The low- and high-fre-quency components are then recom-bined to nearly double the analog bandwidth of the oscilloscope.

By developing the frequency inter-leaving technique, oscilloscope ven-dors can produce higher-bandwidth scopes without having to develop ex-pensive preamplifier chips. As is the case with most t e c h n i q u e s , there are trad-eoffs that must be considered.

The biggest tradeoff is the total harmonic distortion, based on how good the interleaving technique is. All of the processing adds distortion, and the additional hardware increas-es the signal path and noise (see Fig. 2). Thus the interleaving technique trades off some measurement accu-racy for increased bandwidth.

DSP boostingIn 2004, the first 13 GHz oscillo-scope used a technique known as DSP boosting to raise bandwidth from 12 to 13 GHz. At the time, many argued that the technique caused too much noise, and they did not accept the 13-GHz figure as a real bandwidth. However, in 2007, the first 20 GHz oscilloscope DSP boosted from 16 to 20 GHz. Sudden-ly the arguments against DSP boost-ing seemed to ease, as two major vendors were now boosting. But,

more importantly, it was then the only way to achieve a 20-GHz bandwidth.

The first 20-GHz oscilloscope was very well received

in the market, as designers now could make higher bandwidth measure-ments on 6- and 8-Gbit/s signals. They purchased the oscilloscope based only on the banner specifica-tion, without worrying about the technology underlying it.

So what is DSP boosting? DSP boosting is a processing technique in which the high-frequency content of

Fig. 3. Software can be used for DSP bandwidth-enhancement filtering.

Fig. 4. In this sine wave sweep with

DSP boosting, note the noise boost at high frequency.

Fig. 2. Noise floor comparisons of different oscilloscopes with different techniques. The 90000 X-Series uses raw hardware.


How scopes deliver 20-GHz bandwidths and up


Fig. 5. Using a 10.3125-Gbit/s industry standard PRBS7 pattern signal with ISI added, measurement performance using of raw hardware (left) and DSP boosting (below) is compared. The raw hardware performance yields over 25% more eye height and width.


How scopes deliver 20-GHz bandwidths and up

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an oscilloscope is pumped with soft-ware. One important point to note is that DSP boosting needs to be distin-guished from other types of DSP cor-rection that oscilloscope vendors use today.

To understand DSP boosting, first remember that a signal can be bro-ken down into its numerous frequen-cy components. Using software, you can amplify the higher-frequency components of the signal. In Fig. 3, the red trace represents a typical os-cilloscope frequency response. The green trace is the result of using a software filter to amplify the high-frequency components, which re-sults in the increased bandwidth.

At this point everything looks just fine. But there is one major draw-back: when the signal is amplified, so is the noise contribution of the os-cilloscope. Depending on how much boosting is done, the technique could actually degrade the signal and give worse results than a lower-bandwidth, non-boosted signal.

This is the single most important reason to really analyze how much

boosting is occurring and whether the bandwidth-noise tradeoff is ac-ceptable. Figure 4 shows the effects of DSP boosting from 16 to 20 GHz on the noise of an oscilloscope. This in-crease in noise has a direct impact when measuring circuit performance (see Fig. 5).

Selections considerationsIn looking to select a scope, the ban-ner specification alone is not the ideal way to measure an oscilloscopes suit-ability. Oscilloscope vendors use vari-ous techniques to achieve high band-width, and these techniques come with tradeoffs that may be detrimen-tal to measurement accuracy. Accu-racy is not free, and so users should expect to get what they pay for.

If one has a choice between scopes with raw hardware bandwidth or a bandwidth created through DSP techniques, such as boosting or fre-quency interleaving, a rule of thumb is that the one with raw hardware bandwidth will likely be more accu-rate. However, designers should in-vestigate even the most technically advanced oscilloscopes checking the noise floor, jitter measurement floor, and so forth to find the one that best suits their needs.



As the Long Term Evolution (LTE) of UMTS networks begins its worldwide rollout based on 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 8, and as new features are con-sidered for Release 9, big improve-ments are already being discussed for the next enhancement LTE-Ad-vanced which will form Release 10.

LTE-Advanced will add significant features to those of previous releases. Together, they will produce a true fourth-generation wireless technolo-gy with the potential for very high data rates that have so long been promised but havent yet appeared.

What! you say, LTE is not a 4G standard? If youre talking to the marketing department, the answer is Of course it is. But if you ask the technical community, theyll re-spond No, it isnt. A little history explains why.

The concepts embodied in LTE-Advanced were formed in 2008 when the International Telecommunica-tion Union (ITU) grouped them to-gether within the term IMT (Interna-tional Mobile Telecommunications) -Advanced. This separated IMT-Ad-vanced from the capabilities of past digital wireless standards, which are included under the umbrella of the ITUs original global wireless plan called IMT-2000. The latter includes UMTS/WCDMA, CDMA 20001xRTT and 1xEV-DO, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, and LTE Release 8.

The data rate requirements of IMT-Advanced (100 Mbits/s in high-mobil-ity scenarios and 1 Gbit/s in fixed- and low-mobility conditions) effectively rendered it impossible for LTE Release 8 to be considered a true 4G mobile communication system, even though

Moving to LTE-Advanced... before LTE arrives!

True fourth-generation wireless service may be just around the corner; will it mean a significant change in instrumentation?

some of its requirements were met (see Table 1). So LTE is not officially a 4G technology, but rather a major step in that direction. However, as Table 2 shows, LTE-Advanced takes a consid-erable step beyond LTE.

Achieving 4GLTE-Advanced will strive to improve LTE through higher peak and average data rates, greater spectrum efficien-cy, and reduced latency in the control and user planes. To achieve these goals, current LTE features have been improved and new ones defined.

Higher uplink and downlink peak data rates can be achieved by enhanc-ing multiple input, multiple output

(MIMO) capabilities and through car-rier aggregation. MIMO in its simplest form means the use of multiple trans-mit or receive antennas or both (di-versity) to achieve greater perfor-mance. For LTE-Advanced, single-user

MIMO in the downlink can be up to 8 transmit and 8 receive (8 x 8 con-figuration) antennas and now also 4x4 in the uplink, which has not been defined with LTE as of Release 8.

Carrier aggregation is a method for combining the available spectrum in order to accommodate the 100-MHz maximum bandwidth defined with IMT-Advanced. However, as 100 MHz of continuous frequency spectrum is

BY ANDREAS ROESSLERRohde & Schwarz, Columbia, MDhttp://www.rohde-schwarz.com

Table 2. Potential, cost, and benefits of LTE-Advanced

Table 1. Comparing LTE release 8, IMT-Advanced, and LTE-Advanced


not available to any carrier worldwide, carrier aggrega-tion (see Fig. 1) allows fre-quencies in different blocks to be combined to produce something reasonably close.

Up to five carriers, each with bandwidths up to 20 MHz, produce the trans-mission bandwidth of 100 MHz, and, to ensure back-ward compatibility, each carrier can be configured to be compliant with 3GPP Release 8, but need not be compatible with it.

Even if all of a carriers licensed frequency blocks are combined, the result will not be 100 MHz, and new spectrum allocations cannot be made until 2015, when the World Radio Conference (WRC) next convenes. Consequently, initial LTE-Advanced deployments will likely be limited to two or three carriers for a maximum downlink/uplink bandwidth of either 40 or 50 MHz, depending on the mode (FDD or TDD).

With LTE in Release 8, transmis-sion of data and control infor-mation is decoupled and the terminal uses the physical up-link control channel (PUCCH) only to transmit information when it does not have to transmit any data on the physical uplink shared chan-nel (PUSCH). This is no lon-ger the case with LTE-Ad-vanced, in which simultaneous transmission of PUCCH and PUSCH is possible, providing a significant increase in aver-age throughput.

Release 8 uses a localized SC-FDMA mode (modulation symbols are assigned to adja-cent subcarriers). This continuous mapping provides multiuser gain in the frequency domain. In Release 10, the uplink transmission scheme is ex-tended to support clustered alloca-tion of subcarrier (resource blocks). This enables the flexibility benefits of frequency-selective scheduling, but increases the peak-to-average power ratio, which makes more demands on transceiver and power amplifier de-signers to maintain linearity.

High speed on the edgePeak spectrum efficiency can be

achieved by using the highest possi-ble level of MIMO and highest-order modulation scheme which for the downlink means 8 x 8 MIMO and 64QAM modulation. Both enhance-ment techniques require a signifi-cant high signal-to-noise ratio, which is not likely to be present at the edge of the cells coverage area.

To improve performance in this area, LTE-Advanced improves spec-tral efficiency using Coordinated Multiple Point Transmission and Re-ception (CoMP). The CoMP concept (see Fig. 2) coordinates and combines

signals from multiple base stations to maintain the high data rates nec-essary to allow LTE-Advanced to achieve its full potential, especially at or near the cell edge.

A user at the edge of a cells coverage area may be able to receive signals from multiple cell sites, and the users trans-mitted signal may be receivable at mul-tiple cell sites. Assuming this, by coor-dinating the signaling from the multiple cell sites, downlink perfor-mance can be significantly improved. Coordination can be as simple as fo-cusing on interference avoidance. In

the uplink, the signal can be received by multiple cell sites, and through coordina-tion of different cell sites the network can use this multi-ple reception to improve link quality.

New challenges, new boxes?It is reasonable to expect that the major LTE-Ad-vanced enhancements will need new test equipment,

but thanks to trends in test equipment design, this is not necessarily the case. For example, the R&S SMU200A vec-tor signal generator and R&S AMU200A baseband signal generator/fading sim-ulator combine two signal generators in one instrument so multiple compo-nent carriers can be generated. Using a single SMU200A configured with two baseband units, two component carri-ers up to 20 MHz in bandwidth can be generated and faded in real-time ei-ther with contiguous or non-contigu-ous placement. Generating and aggre-gating more component carriers is

possible with additional signal generators.

If no real-time fading and individual power leveling are required, arbitrary multicarrier waveform signal generation is another option that simplifies the setup. With this approach, an instrument such as the R&S SMBV100A vector signal gener-ator, which has a 120-MHz bandwidth, large waveform memory, and high clock rate, can generate complex modu-lated multicarrier waveforms for the proposed contiguously-deployed 100-MHz bandwidth of LTE-Advanced.

So LTE-Advanced promises perfor-mance gains in peak data rates, spec-tral efficiency, performance at the cell edge, overall coverage. and the deliv-ery of what users of wireless-enabled devices have long wanted truly high-speed data throughput equal to, or perhaps even better than, a wired solution at home. LTE-Advanced, which is at least four years away from deployment, will be received in direct proportion to how well its 3.9G pre-decessor, LTE, is received in the com-ing years. However, based on its poten-tial, it will be worth the wait.

Fig. 1. The principle of contiguous and noncontiguous carrier aggregation in LTE-Advanced.

Fig. 2. Basic CoMP principles take signals from multiple base stations to maintain the high data rates.


Moving to LTE-Advanced ... before LTE arrives!


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Embedded and computing sys-tems have become increasingly more powerful by incorporating high-speed buses, industry standard subsystems, and more high-integrat-ed-functionality chips. They have also become more complex, more sensitive to signal quality, and more time consuming to troubleshoot.

While standards exist for many technologies commonly used within high-performance digi-tal systems, a major test challenge is to ensure that these elements are synchronized and per-form as a seamless, inte-grated whole. When hardware and software engineers are working together to troubleshoot the root cause of a spe-cific problem, they require a complete view of information on a bus both its electrical representation and a higher level of abstraction like the de-coded view of a serial bus protocol. Testing, debugging, and validating a more-complex high-performance de-sign, typically with multiple subsys-tems, requires the ability to time-cor-relate analog and digital signal information.

In such scenarios, engineers are turning to high-performance mixed-signal oscilloscopes (MSOs) that can provide accurate information on tim-ing performance along with views for analyzing data at higher levels of ab-straction. While MSOs have been available for some time, only recently

Testing high-performance mixed-signal designs

In todays digital systems, ensuring that all elements are synchronized and act as an integrated whole is a major challenge

have they achieved performance lev-els necessary to allow debugging of the latest high-speed serial memory and RF systems.

Analog-digital correlationThe context surrounding an event, provided by time-correlated analog and digital signal information, can be invaluable in debugging digital sys-tems. For example, what memory lo-

cation was being accessed? Where did this packet of information originate? What was the state of the ASIC when that bus fault occurred? Low-level or physical layer details can help identify root cause but often the most efficient way to trace issues is to un-derstand in what state was the larger system. Being able to capture several views of signaling as it flows through a system can provide useful clues and insights.

It is often valuable to analyze specific cycle types, such as signal integ-rity during read cycles or write timing jitter for a spe-

cific bank of memory. Sophisticated signaling schemes such as in DDR can complicate debugging. When cycle in-formation is distributed across several digital signals, it takes sophisticated triggering to respond to it in real time. Thus, effective debugging may include detecting signal faults only during specific bus cycles. Digital pattern qualification can be applied to logic-fault trigger types to detect signal

faults in real time, such as a glitch during a read.

High-speed serial designsHigh-speed serial bus ar-chitectures, including PCI-Express, HDMI, and SATA, provide considerable data throughput along with such benefits as differen-tial signaling, lower pin count, and less space for board layout. As multi-gigabit data rates become common, signal integrity is a critical concern. One

bad bit in the data stream can impact the outcome of an instruction or transaction.

High-performance video systems, such as high-end set top boxes, incor-porate a variety of technologies such

BY CHRIS LOBERGTektronix, Beaverton, ORhttp://www.tektronix.com

Fig. 1. The HDMI system architecture includes high-speed clock and data lines along with the display data channel.

Fig. 2. A display of the SDATA line in digital and analog format makes clear the glitch on I2C SDATA line was due to noise-coupling effects.


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Our engineers needed a faster scope. A scope that would display 1 million waveforms per second. So we built one.

as RF receivers, video processors, memory and high-speed serial inter-faces. In this case, the system uses an HDMI interface which operates at 3.4 Gb/s across each of the three data lanes. The architecture of the HDMI link (see Fig. 1) includes high-speed clock and data lines, along with the display data channel (DDC), which uses I2C signaling in standard mode (10 MHz). The DDC line is used for in-

formation exchange between the source (transmitter) and sink (receiver) devices.

This design required debug as the output to the monitor would turn off intermittently. First the physical layer was checked for functional operation and each lane passed eye diagram and jitter measurements. After the high-speed clock and data lines were mea-sured, the I2C control lines were moni-

tored for error codes or invalid data. In normal operation the DDC uses ad-dresses 0xA0 and 0xA1. Using an MSO, engineering were able to capture and decode the I2C traffic and discover that an incorrect address would some-times be asserted during power up. In the display of the SDATA line in digital and analog format (see Fig. 2), it ap-peared, based on the analog signal view, that there was crosstalk or other noise-coupling effects that corrupted the I2C traffic.

In order to find the root cause of the glitch, adjacent lanes were ana-lyzed and edge rates were evaluated across each high-spee

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