Verification, Debug, and Conformance Test Suite for MIPI M-PHY

23 June 2011 - LeCroy Corporation introduced a test suite tailored specifically to the verification, debug, and conformance testing of MIPIR Alliance M-PHYSM and various other signal types using the M-PHY physical layer standard. As part of the Mixel MIPI Alliance Ecosystem Partnership, LeCroy was able to leverage the relationship with Mixel to develop and validate the M-PHY test suite with early IP Cores.

MIPI Alliance is a global, collaborative organization comprised of companies that span the mobile ecosystem and are committed to defining and promoting interface specifications for mobile devices. There were approximately 700 million MIPI powered integrated circuits in production in 2010, with projected growth to 6.2 billion units by 2015. The M-PHY standard is an important factor in driving the unit growth with improved power efficiency, low pin count, more robust symbol coding, multiple transmission speed rates, and compatibility with optical applications.

Such a powerful and robust protocol demands stringent conformance tests requiring transmitter, receiver, and interface S-parameter and Impedance tests. The LeCroy MIPI M-PHY test suite provides all of the tools needed to address the conformance test specifications in an easy and accurate fashion, using the WaveMaster 8 Zi oscilloscope for protocol, eye diagram, and jitter and skew tests; the PeRT³ Eagle for Loopback mode initiation and jitter tolerance tests; and the SPARQ-4004E for Transmitter, receiver, and cable TDR and S-Parameter tests.

The LeCroy WaveMaster 8 Zi oscilloscope has the bandwidth to address the multi-speed requirements as defined by Gear, 1, 2, and 3 with models ranging from 4 GHz to 45 GHz. The intuitive decode and physical layer test package provides easy setup for eye diagram, jitter, and amplitude/slew rate timing requirements to address the Tx Timers and Signaling test requirements.

The PeRT³ (Protocol-enabled Receiver and Transmitter Tolerance Tester) Eagle system is designed to test receivers under conditions of stress. The PeRT³ fills the space between physical layer test and protocol test, providing a new and more intelligent capability for performance testing of receivers and transmitters to accurately test the Rx Timers and Electrical Tolerances portion of the conformance test suite.

The Interface S-Parameter and Impedance test requirements are met with the LeCroy SPARQ. The SPARQ is a TDR/TD-based analyzer that measures 40 GHz, 4-port S-Parameters with a single button press at a fraction of the cost of a VNA. The Tx/Rx S-Parameter and Resistance/Leakage test requirements are easily met with the SPARQ-4004E model.

Test Solutions for Other MIPI Specifications

MIPI D-PHY tests are met with products already available from LeCroy. An automated compliance package for D-PHY quickly characterizes the D-PHY interface while the CSI-2, DSI, DigRF 3G and DigRF v4 protocol and measurements tools greatly ease the debug process.