Low-Cost Characterization and Calibration of RF Integrated Circuits through $I$–$Q$ Data Analysis

Abstract

Due to the increasing complexity of radio-frequency circuits, their testing becomes more challenging. A large number of performance parameters under several operation conditions are needed in order to ensure compliance to specifications. In this paper, we present a low-cost test methodology that determines significant performance parameters, such as path gain <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">IIP</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> , quadrature imbalances, noise, bit error rate, and error vector magnitude through a single test setup. The proposed test methodology is applicable for both single-carrier and multicarrier systems. Simulation and measurement results indicate that these performance parameters can be calculated and estimated accurately through a single test setup and using a shorter test sequence than required by traditional techniques. In addition, a calibration technique is presented for single-carrier systems to recover marginally failing devices through analytically correcting performance parameters.