Method and apparatus for integrated testing of a system containing digital and radio frequency circuits

摘要

A method is provided for accomplishing unified testing of a digital/RF system (10'), comprised of a digital controller (14), a base-band processor (20), an RF transmitter (24) and an RF receiver (34). The digital portion of the digital/RF system (10'), including the digital controller (14) and the base-band processor (20), is tested by a digital test technique such as Boundary-Scan testing. Test patterns for the RF elements are down-loaded from the digital controller (14) to the base-band processor via a Boundary-Scan Test Access Port (TAP). Thereafter, the RF transmitter (24) and the RF receiver (34) are tested by applying the test patterns from the base-band processor to the RF transmitter for transmission thereby. The signal produced by the RF transmitter (24) in response to the applied test pattern is converted to a first digital signal stream for processing by the base-band processor (20) to determine the operability of the transmitter. The signal produced by the RF transmitter (24) is also received by the RF receiver (34) for demodulation thereby. The demodulated receiver signal is then converted to a second signal stream for input to the base-band processor to determine the operability of the receiver.