An architecture for self-test of a wireless communication system using sampled IQ modulation and boundary scan

Abstract

An architecture for system-level self-test of a wireless communication transceiver integrates the functional (parametric) self-test of the radio frequency subsystem, and the structural self-test of the digital subsystem. The digital subsystem is tested using extensions of the IEEE 1149.1 boundary scan standard to verify connections within circuit boards and between boards. The RF subsystem is tested using a loopback connection between the RF transmitter and receiver. An RF parametric self-test is performed using a digitally modulated signal (as opposed to a sinusoidal tone) as the test stimulus, and using samples from the receiver digitizer as test data. This loopback test scheme imposes a relatively small overhead on the RF system design.