A NEW CONCEPT FOR RF AND MICROWAVE IN-CIRCUIT TESTING AND DEBUGGING OF MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

摘要

Rf and microwave multifunction boards are getting more complicated, while development schedules are getting shorter to meet time-to-market requirements. In this evolving development process, there is usually not enough time to test the individual blocks, and the feasibility for full deterministic analysis of the whole board is low, especially in terms of EM/cross-talk simulation. The ability to perform broadband, accurate and reliable in-circuit testing offers an opportunity to gain insight into the performance of individual blocks and sub-circuit chains under real environment conditions (loading, grounding, radiation, noise conduction, thermal dissipation and spectral purity, for example). This enables fast debugging and shorter development cycles, which in turn leads to shorter time-to-market and higher yield (that is lower costs) in production.