Built-in self-test for receiver

• US 9,515,751 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2014
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Deutschland GmbH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Hammes, Markus, Kreienkamp, Rainer, Yan, Junlin, Doppke, Harald
• Primary Examiner(s): Huang, David S
• Application Number:
  US14/155,307
• Publication Number:
  US 20150372773A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• Field of Search: 375/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/08 Details of the phase-locked loop
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/29 Performance testing

Abstract

Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide a built-in self-test for a RF communication device. The communication device self-generates a test signal and processes the test signal through the communication device to determine an operational state of the communication device.

Claims

1. A self-test apparatus, comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) phase-locked loop (PLL) device arranged to generate a local oscillator (LO) signal;

a divider component arranged to divide a frequency of the LO signal by an integer value to produce a modulation frequency; and

a modulation component arranged to modulate the LO signal at the modulation frequency to produce a test signal arranged to test a system-on-chip (SoC) communication device that includes the self-test apparatus.

2. The self-test apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication device uses a single PLL device, comprising the RF PLL device.

3. The self-test apparatus of claim 1, the modulation component further arranged to receive a code signal and to spread the test signal based on the code signal.

4. The self-test apparatus, of claim 3, wherein the code signal comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) code sequence and the spreaded test signal comprises a CDMA-type test signal arranged to be processed by a baseband portion of a CDMA receiver.

5. The self-test apparatus of claim 1, the modulation component further arranged to modulate an amplitude the LO signal by switching the LO signal on and off or by switching a polarity of the LO signal at the modulation frequency.

6. The self-test apparatus of claim 1, wherein the self-test apparatus comprises a radio frequency built-in self-test (RFRIST) mechanism of a SoC Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) communication device.

7. A system-on-chip (SoC) implemented radio frequency (RF) communication device, comprising:

a RF portion, including;

a single radio frequency (RF) phase-locked loop (PLL) device arranged to generate a local oscillator (LO) signal;

a divider component arranged to divide a frequency of the LO signal by an integer value to produce a modulation frequency;

a modulation component arranged to modulate the LO signal at the modulation frequency to produce a test signal and to output the test signal, the test signal arranged to test the RF communication device; and

a front end portion arranged to receive and to down-convert the test signal to form a converted test signal; and

a baseband portion, including;

one or more correlators arranged to analyze the converted test signal to determine an operational state of the RF communication device.

8. The SoC implemented RF communication device of claim 7, wherein the RF portion further comprises one or more signal paths, each signal path including a band-pass filter tuned to one of a plurality of intermediate frequencies (IF) and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) arranged to pass a digitized version of the converted test signal to the baseband portion.

9. The SoC implemented RF communication device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of intermediate frequencies comprise a plurality of global navigational satellite system (GNSS) intermediate frequencies, and wherein the converted test signal is arranged to pass through the band-pass filter of each of the one or more signal paths.

10. The SoC implemented RF communication device of claim 7, wherein the baseband portion further comprises a plurality of code generators arranged to generate and output code sequences to the modulation component, the code sequences representing one or more global navigational satellite system (GNSS) spreading codes.

11. The SoC implemented RE communication device of claim 10, wherein the test signal is based on a fundamental frequency of the RF communication device, the test signal comprising the LO signal with amplitude modulation, and spreaded by a code division multiple access (CDMA) code.

12. The SoC implemented RF communication device of claim 7, wherein the SoC-implemented RF communication device is arranged to autonomously self-generate the test signal at a receiver of the communication device, process the test signal through one or more receive signal paths of the RF communication device, and self-analyze test results of processing the test signal, to determine an operational state of the RF communication device.

13. A method, comprising:

generating a local oscillator (LO) signal at a receiver of an RF communication device having a single phase-locked loop (PLL) device;

dividing a frequency of the LO signal by an integer value to produce a modulation frequency;

modulating the LO signal at the modulation frequency to produce a radio frequency (RF) test signal;

processing the test signal with the receiver to test an operational state of the RF communication device, the processing producing a resulting signal at the receiver; and

analyzing the resulting signal at the receiver to determine the operational state of the RF communication device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the test signal has a center frequency at the frequency of the LO signal, and has first order frequency components at the frequency of the LO signal plus the modulation frequency and at the frequency of the LO signal less the modulation frequency.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising spreading the test signal with a code sequence arranged to be decoded in a baseband portion of the receiver.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the code sequence comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) code sequence.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving and down converting the test signal to an intermediate frequency (IF) of the RF communication device at a front end portion of the receiver and band-pass filtering the converted test signal, the converted test signal passing a frequency band comprising the intermediate frequency plus the modulation frequency and the intermediate frequency less the modulation frequency.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising autonomously self-testing the operational state of the RF communication device during production of the RF communication device and during post-production of the RF communication device, the RF communication device implemented with self-test functionality as a system on chip (SoC).

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the RF communication device is arranged to receive and to process Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals.