Tektronix, Inc, the world’s leading manufacturer of oscilloscopes, has announced the industry’s first fully automated physical layer transmitter test solution for the MIPI M-PHY 3.1 specification and Conformance Test Suite (CTS) 3.1.

The solution supports M-PHY High Speed Gears 1, 2 and 3, PWM Mode (G0-G7), and SYS Mode and offers the industry’s lowest noise solution for M-PHY measurements when used with Tektronix DPO70000SX or MSO/DPO70000DX oscilloscopes and P7600 series probes.

“Automated serial test solutions such as what Tektronix is now offering for MIPI M-PHY 3.1 allow engineers to complete the full set of tests in significantly less time while improving consistency. The automated solution supports advanced analysis, debugging and characterisation of devices while allowing designers to test in compliance mode as well as user-defined mode,” the company said.

“Last year we introduced comprehensive test support for M-PHY 3.1, giving our customers the tools they needed to design cutting edge mobile devices with higher performance and improved efficiency,” said Brian Reich, general manager, performance oscilloscopes, Tektronix. “Now we are taking our test solution to the next level by giving our customers the advantage of full automation which in turn will help them to bring even higher performing products to market in less time.”

The M-PHY TX automated solutions provides support for 100 per cent of tests as per M-PHY 3.1 and CTS 3.1 using the TekExpress 4.0 framework, a state-of-the-art tool designed for automation. The backend engine of automation is based on Iron Python which uses socket based programming and .Net remoting

Testing M-PHY transmitters running in high-speed mode requires a scope and probe system with rise time 3X faster than the signal rise time, sensitivity of 200 mV(FS,) minimal added noise (<1 or 2 mV(rms)), and high return loss as specified in the M-PHY standard. Tektronix DPO70000SX and MSO/DPO 70000DX oscilloscopes and P7600 Series TriMode probes are the only measurement system available that can meet these requirements while also providing convenient and consistent bus termination for HS measurements with low noise and high sensitivity. The closest alternative has 10X worse sensitivity (Tektronix: 35 mVfs vs Competition: 360mVfs) and adds 4X more noise (Tektronix: <1mVrms vs Competition: 4 mVrms) to the signal.

BERTScope Solution – Along with the automated TX solution, Tektronix also announced its fully automated BERTScope-based M-PHY RX solution. The automation solution is provided by Tektronix partner Granite River Labs. Auto calibration along with measurement support for HS and PWM Mode is supported as per M-PHY 3.1 and CTS 3.1. Auto calibration for high speed gears reduces the complexity of setup, saves time, and enables users to test devices faster.

M-PHY HS Gear 4 Support – The recently released M-PHY 4.0 specification includes support for HS Gear 4 with a data rate of 11.6 Gb/s.

UniPro, UFS Protocol Testing – For protocol testing, PGY-UPRO and UFS software for use with Tektronix high performance oscilloscopes, is now available.