IQultra - the industry's first Ultra-Wideband (UWB) EVM test system - covers both development and manufacturing testing of UWB devices. And, the new IQnav test system is aimed at high-volume manufacturing testing of the proliferating, embedded, GPS-equipped devices.

"From our position of strength in WiFi and WiFi MIMO testing, we are expanding into UWB and GPS markets with uniquely competitive offerings," stated Benny Madsen, LitePoint's chief executive officer.

IQnxnplus - for WiFi/WiMAX MIMO development
LitePoint's new IQnxnplus MIMO R and D test system comes at just the right time in both the WiFi and WiMAX MIMO development cycles to help ODMs and OEMs verify designs and get them into production, and into the market, sooner, and at lower overall cost.

"There simply is no more effective way to test MIMO devices in development than using synchronized, modular, VSA/VSG test systems," stated John Lukez, head of product management at LitePoint.

"In the real world, MIMO devices will have multiple radios sending simultaneous signals and receiving simultaneous signals while dealing with natural impairments. A development test system must be capable of recreating that same kind of environment," he explained.

"WiMAX Wave 2 devices demand a way to truly test 2x1 devices, and IQnxnplus is designed for doing exactly that."

LitePoint IQnxnplus test systems are a modular approach to MIMO R and D testing. Each module contains its own vector signal analyzer (VSA) and vector signal generator (VSG). A synchronizer subsystem ensures that the modules work in lockstep. One can develop test programs on this system and then easily port them to a single IQmax tester for production testing.

The systems can be configured from a 1x1 (e.g. one module and a synchronizer subsystem) to a 4x4 (e.g. four modules and a synchronizer subsystem). The modules support WiFi and WiMAX frequency ranges of 2.15 to 2.7 GHz, 3.3 to 3.8 GHz, and 4.9 to 6.0 GHz.

The included graphical user interfaces (GUIs) - IQsignal for WiFi and IQsignal for WiMAX - provide powerful analysis and display capabilities for single, multi-stream and beam-forming adaptive-antenna functionality testing.

Because the IQnxnplus system shares the same architecture as LitePoint's IQmax manufacturing test system, there is consistency across development and manufacturing test processes and results that simplify and speed up design-problem resolution. In fact, the IQnxnplus modules can also be used for automated manufacturing testing to provide additional test capacity during periods of increased demand.

IQultra - for UWB development and manufacturing testing
The IQultra WiMedia test system features a special-purpose vector signal analyzer (VSA) combined with an attenuator for UWB receive testing. The system can capture and analyze all WiMedia band groups (1 to 6) and time frequency codes (TFCs; 1-10).

"There's no other wireless standard besides UWB that spans over seven GHz of spectrum with signal bandwidths of 528 MHz and maximum power of -41 dBm per MHz," said Lukez.

"Testing UWB poses a choice between very expensive instruments, or very long test times, or both. But IQultra, like all of our other wireless test solutions, changes the rules of the testing game. It enables single-signal capture and analysis without posing frequency or signal-bandwidth constraints. This allows you to do quality measurements, like EVM, which is critical to verifying the high data-rate capabilities of UWB," he explained.

"When we first saw LitePoint's WiMedia test system prototype, last December, we were very impressed by its ability to fully verify the capabilities of our latest UWB chip set," said Dr. David Shoemaker, Alereon's Vice President Engineering and Operations. "The resulting IQultra is even more impressive. It is an excellent WiMedia development or production test solution."

The new systems come with LitePoint's IQsignal for WiMedia graphical user interface (GUI) that controls the unit and supports signal analysis. Using IQultra's C++ software application program interface (API), users can quickly and easily create automated test programs.

LitePoint's IQultra WiMedia test system comes in two versions: IQultra-300 for triple band capture and IQultra-100 for single-band capture. Both support from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, and support MB-OFDM PHY layer specification version 1.2.

IQnav - for manufacturing test of GPS-equipped devices
The GPS market is on a huge, sustained roll. In-vehicle navigation has become ubiquitous in Japan and is being followed closely by North America and European countries, according to RNCOS, a market research firm in Delhi, India.

RNCOS writes that personal navigation devices, in 2007, accounted for 90 percent of the GPS market, but by 2012, the firm believes that GPS-enabled handsets will grab a 78-percent market share. The firm also expects the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 to "trigger an explosion" in China's commercial telematics market.

LitePoint's new IQnav system is designed to improve test coverage of GPS devices while simultaneously lowering those test costs.

The multichannel IQnav enables both C/No measurements and location-fix test to be performed in a single connection to the device under test (DUT). This saves time (up to 50 percent) compared to sequential test approaches.

Additionally, the IQnav offers synthetic power sweep (SPS) capabilities where up to six C/No measurements are made simultaneously, saving additional time. Finally, the price of a six-channel IQnav compares with that of competitive single-channel testers, thus adding capabilities without affecting acquisition costs.

IQnav is available in 1- and 6-channel models, both supporting L1 GPS frequencies (1575.42 MHz) over a power range of -60 to -145 dBm. The IQnav features specialized trigger capabilities that support testing of assisted GPS (A-GPS), commonly used in CDMA one and CDMA 2000 handsets.

"By applying GPS IC design techniques to the IQnav, LitePoint has been able to produce a GPS test instrument which allows thorough test coverage while simultaneously reducing test costs. It is another example of LitePoint looking at the entire test process and developing optimal solutions," Lukez added.

Related Links
IQnav - for manufacturing test of GPS-equipped devices
IQultra - for UWB development and manufacturing testing
IQnxnplus - for WiFi/WiMAX MIMO development
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