WO2012009912A1

WO2012009912A1 - Calibration test system, device and method for receiver

Info

Publication number: WO2012009912A1
Application number: PCT/CN2010/078970
Authority: WO
Inventors: 卜凡卫; 李冠中; 何克光
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2010-07-21
Filing date: 2010-11-22
Publication date: 2012-01-26
Also published as: CN101902287A

Abstract

The present invention discloses a calibration test system, device and method for a receiver. The calibration test system includes a processor (22) and a radio frequency signal meter (24); and the system also includes a multiplexer device (26), which includes a shunt module(262) used for receiving a radio frequency signal from the radio frequency signal meter (24) and dividing the radio frequency signal into multi-path radio frequency signals and a frequency conversion amplitude modulation module (264) used for converting frequency and amplitude for one or more paths of multi-path radio frequency signals from the shunt module (262) and outputting the converted signals to various receivers to calibrate and test. With the technical solution provided by the present invention, it can achieve the effect of saving cost of expensive radio frequency meter resources and improving test efficiency.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a calibration test system, apparatus, and method for a receiver. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION With the development of communication technologies, wireless terminal users have increased dramatically, and the number of users of mobile phones, wireless network cards, wireless access boxes, home information devices, and terrestrial satellite receiving devices has exceeded 1.5 billion worldwide, and has been increasing. In the face of the sharp increase in terminal demand and increasingly cruel market competition, end product manufacturers are always trying to reduce supply pressure and pursue higher profits, both to ensure the quality of the terminal products, and to continuously shorten the wireless terminal. Production cycle. In this case, the RF receiver calibration test of the terminal product has become an important part of the terminal production test, and the expensive instrument resources occupy a large test cost. At present, the receiver calibration test system device uses a processor (for example, a PC) 12, a radio frequency signal meter 14, and a receiver 16 test method. The structure of the test system is shown in FIG. In the diagram, the PC changes the frequency and power level by controlling the meter, and simultaneously controls the receiver under test to change the corresponding frequency and low noise amplifier (LNA) gain value, and saves the calculated relevant parameters to the receiver. The memory, thus completing the calibration of the receiver. However, the above-mentioned test system has low utilization rate of the radio frequency signal meter, and one meter can only calibrate and test one receiver, and the test efficiency is difficult to be improved, which cannot meet the mass production. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the problem of low utilization of a test system radio frequency signal meter in the related art. Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved receiver calibration system, apparatus and method for solving the above At least one of the problems. According to one aspect of the invention, a calibration test system for a receiver is provided. A calibration test system for a receiver according to the present invention includes: a processor and a radio frequency signal meter, the system further comprising: a multiplexer device, wherein the multiplexer device comprises: a shunt module for receiving Receiving a radio frequency signal from a radio frequency signal meter, and dividing the radio frequency signal into a plurality of radio frequency signals; the frequency conversion amplitude modulation module is configured to perform frequency conversion and amplitude modulation on one or more channels of the multiple radio frequency signals from the shunt module, and Output to each receiver separately for calibration testing. According to another aspect of the present invention, a multiplexer device is provided. The multiplexer device according to the present invention comprises: a branching module for receiving a radio frequency signal from a radio frequency signal meter, and dividing the radio frequency signal into a plurality of radio frequency signals; and a frequency conversion amplitude modulation module for using more from the shunt module One or more of the RF signals are subjected to frequency conversion and amplitude modulation, and are respectively output to respective receivers for calibration test. According to still another aspect of the present invention, a calibration test method for a receiver is provided. A calibration test method for a receiver according to the present invention includes: receiving a radio frequency signal from a radio frequency signal meter; dividing the radio frequency signal into a plurality of radio frequency signals; performing one-way or multi-path frequency conversion and amplitude modulation on the plurality of radio frequency signals, and Output to each receiver separately for calibration testing. Through the invention, the multiplexer device is used to divide a signal transmitted by the radio frequency signal meter into multiple signals, so that multiple receivers can be calibrated at the same time, which solves the problem that the instrument utilization is low, the test efficiency is low, and mass production cannot be performed. In turn, the cost of saving expensive RF instrument resources is increased, and the efficiency of testing is improved. Other features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the <RTI BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are set to illustrate,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a calibration test system of a conventional receiver in the prior art; FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view of a calibration test system of a receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a preferred implementation according to the present invention. Schematic diagram of the multiplexer device of the example; 4 is a structural block diagram of a variable frequency amplitude modulation module according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a circuit schematic diagram of a frequency conversion amplitude modulation module according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 6 is a structure of a multiplexer device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 7 is a flow chart of a receiver calibration test method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a receiver calibration test method in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings in conjunction with the embodiments. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a calibration test system for a receiver is first provided. 2 is a block diagram of a calibration test system of a receiver in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the system includes, in addition to: a processor 22 and a radio frequency signal meter 24, and may further include: a multiplexer device 26. The multiplexer device 26 may further include: a branching module 262, a frequency conversion amplitude modulation module 264, a towel, and a branching module 262, configured to receive the radio frequency signal from the radio frequency signal meter 24, and divide the radio frequency signal into multiple radio frequency signals. The signal amplitude modulation module 264 is configured to perform frequency conversion and amplitude modulation on one or more of the multiple RF signals from the branching module 262, and output to each receiver for calibration test. In a preferred implementation process, the processor may be an entity having a control processing function, such as a PC. The processor can issue operation instructions to other modules in the system, and control other modules to perform corresponding processing. The parameters of the RF signal emitted by the RF signal meter (for example, frequency and amplitude) can be pre-configured in the RF signal meter, or the RF signal meter can be controlled by the processor to generate a RF signal that meets the predetermined requirements. A plurality of receivers to be tested are shown in FIG. 2, and the above system can be used to achieve simultaneous testing of multiple receivers, which can improve test efficiency and meet the requirements of mass production. As shown in Figure 2, each receiver corresponds to a shunt, and the receiver receives the radio frequency signal through the shunt connected thereto. Line calibration test. In the above system, the multiplexer device 26 is used to divide the RF signal emitted by the RF signal meter 24 into multiple channels, thereby breaking the current situation that one RF signal meter can only correspond to one receiver in the prior art, so that one The RF signal meter can correspond to multiple receivers, which greatly saves the cost of expensive RF instrument resources and improves the efficiency of testing while ensuring the test system's implementation and operability. Preferably, the multiplexer device 26 may further include a switch control module 266 connected between the branching module 262 and the variable frequency amplitude modulation module 264 for receiving a switch control command from the processor 22, according to the The switch control command turns on and off the RF path between the shunt module 262 and the variable frequency amplitude modulation module 264. See the example shown in Figure 3 for details. In a preferred implementation process, the multiplexer device first divides the signal input by the radio frequency signal meter into multiple signals through the multi-channel power splitter (four channels are shown in the figure), and outputs the same to the switch module, and the switch module controls each The road signal is turned on and off. The switch control module can open and close one of the way and the other at the same time without affecting each other. After the switch of a certain road is turned on, the RF signal will enter the variable frequency amplitude modulation module. The variable frequency modulation module keeps the encoding format of the input RF signal unchanged, and only changes the frequency and power level of the RF signal to meet the gain value calibration of different channels of the receiver and different LNA states. By using the switch control module 266, the respective branches can be selectively turned on or off, so that the branch in the working state corresponds to the receiver, thereby achieving the purpose of increasing the service life of the device and improving the signal utilization rate. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 4, the above-mentioned variable frequency amplitude modulation module 264 may further include: an frequency conversion unit 2640, configured to receive the frequency conversion instruction from the processor 22, and execute the frequency conversion instruction on the output signal of the crystal oscillator in the frequency conversion unit 2640. Corresponding frequency conversion processing and output. The amplitude modulation unit 2642 is configured to receive an amplitude modulation instruction from the processor 22, perform amplitude modulation processing corresponding to the amplitude modulation instruction on the output signal of the frequency conversion unit 2640, and output the amplitude modulation processing. The mixing unit 2644 is configured to perform mixing processing on the output signal of the amplitude modulation unit 2642 and the output signal of the branching module 262, and output. The band pass filtering unit 2646 is configured to perform band pass filtering processing on the output signal of the mixing unit 2644 and output. The above-mentioned variable frequency amplitude modulation module 264 integrates multiple functions of frequency conversion, amplitude modulation, mixing and filtering, so that it can change only the frequency and power level of the frequency conversion signal while keeping the input RF frequency signal encoding format and the like unchanged. , thus satisfying the gain value calibration of different channels of the receiver and different LNA states. The above-mentioned variable frequency amplitude modulation module 264 will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 5 as an example. 5 is a circuit schematic diagram of a variable frequency amplitude modulation module in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the specific construction manner of the frequency conversion unit and the amplitude modulation unit is as follows: Preferably, the frequency conversion unit 2640 may further include: a crystal oscillator 502, a phase frequency detector 504, a loop filter 506, and a voltage controlled oscillator. 508, a digital frequency divider 510, and a modulator 512, wherein an output of the crystal oscillator 502 is coupled to an input of the phase frequency detector 504, and an output of the phase frequency detector 504 is coupled to the loop filter. At the input of 506, the output of loop filter 506 is coupled to the input of voltage controlled oscillator 508, and the output of voltage controlled oscillator 508 is coupled to an input of digital divider 510. Digital divider 510 The output is connected to the other input of the phase frequency detector 504, the other input of the digital frequency divider 510 is connected to the output of the modulator 512, and an input of the sigma-delta modulator 512 is coupled to the crystal. The output of the 502 is coupled, and the other input of the sigma-delta modulator 512 is coupled to the processor 522. Preferably, the amplitude modulation unit 2642 may further include: a variable gain amplifier 514 and a power detector 516, wherein an input end of the variable gain amplifier 514 is connected to an output end of the voltage controlled oscillator 508, and the variable gain amplifier 514 The output is coupled to the input of power detector 516, and the output of power detector 516 is coupled to the other input of variable gain amplifier 514. In a preferred implementation, as shown in FIG. 5, the mixing unit 2644 can be utilized but is not limited to the mixer 518. The bandpass filtering unit 2646 can be utilized but is not limited to the bandpass filter 520. In a preferred implementation, the above-described frequency conversion unit 2640 and amplitude modulation unit 2642 may employ any combination of the two units as shown in the figure. The circuit shown in Figure 5 can perform the functions of frequency conversion, amplitude modulation, mixing, and filtering without changing the format of the signal, so it can satisfy the parallel calibration of multiple receivers of any system. In addition, the ∑-Δ modulator and loop control system used in this module have a frequency control accuracy of 6 decimal places, which is sufficient for the calibration accuracy of the receiver. According to an embodiment of the invention, a multiplexer device is also provided. The multiplexer device according to the present invention plays an extremely important role as a core device. As shown in FIG. 6, the multiplexer device may further include: The branching module 60 is configured to receive a radio frequency signal from the radio frequency signal meter, and divide the radio frequency signal into multiple radio frequency signals. The frequency conversion amplitude modulation module 62 is configured to be used for one of the multiple radio frequency signals from the shunt module 60 or Multiple conversion and amplitude modulation are performed and output to each receiver for calibration test. Through the above device, one RF signal can be divided into multiple RF signals, and the frequency and power of each RF signal can be adjusted to prepare for the calibration test of the subsequent receiver. Preferably, the multiplexer device may further include: a switch control module 64 connected between the branching module 60 and the variable frequency amplitude modulation module 62 for receiving a switch control command from the processor, according to which the switch control The RF path between the shunt module 60 and the variable frequency modulation module 62 is turned on and off. Through the switch control module 64, each branch can be selectively turned on or off, so that the shunt in the working state corresponds to the receiver, thereby achieving the purpose of increasing the service life of the device and improving the signal utilization rate. Preferably, the variable frequency amplitude modulation module 62 may further include: a frequency conversion unit, configured to receive a frequency conversion instruction from the processor, perform frequency conversion processing corresponding to the frequency conversion instruction on the output signal of the crystal oscillator in the frequency conversion unit, and output; the amplitude modulation unit, Receiving an amplitude modulation instruction from the processor, performing amplitude modulation processing corresponding to the amplitude modulation instruction on the output signal of the frequency conversion unit and outputting; mixing unit for mixing the output signal of the amplitude modulation unit and the output signal of the branching module And output; a band pass filtering unit, configured to perform band pass filtering processing on the output signal of the mixing unit and output. The structure of the variable frequency modulation module 62 composed of the above units can be specifically seen in FIG. 4, and is not mentioned here. In a preferred implementation, the internal circuit of the variable frequency modulation module 62 can be seen in FIG. 5. In a preferred implementation, the above-mentioned frequency conversion unit and amplitude modulation unit can use any combination of the two units shown in the figure but not limited thereto. As shown in Figure 5, the reference crystal, - modulator, digital divider to achieve frequency conversion function, phase frequency detector, loop filter, voltage controlled oscillator (Voltage Controlled Oscillator, referred to as VCO) constitute a phase-locked loop Control, the function for changing the power level (signal amplitude) is controlled by the power detection module. The frequency conversion amplitude modulation module 62 only performs frequency conversion and amplitude variation on the input RF signal, and does not change the signal format of the signal, so that it can satisfy the parallel calibration of the multi-receiver of any system. In addition, the eight-modulator and loop control system used in the variable frequency amplitude modulation module 62 has a frequency control accuracy of 6 decimal places, which is sufficient for the calibration accuracy of the receiver. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a receiver calibration test method is also provided. 7 is a flow chart of a receiver calibration test method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, the method includes the following steps: Step S702: Receive a radio frequency signal from a radio frequency signal meter. Step S704, dividing the radio frequency signal into multiple radio frequency signals. Step 4 gathers S706, and performs one-way or multi-path conversion and amplitude-modulation processing on the multiple RF signals and respectively outputs them to respective receivers for calibration test. By this method, one RF signal is divided into multiple RF signals, and then the frequency and power of each split RF signal are adjusted, thereby obtaining multiple RF signals that meet the calibration test requirements, and simultaneously performing multiple receivers. Calibration, which greatly saves the cost of expensive RF instrument resources and improves the efficiency of testing. Preferably, the above step S706 may further include the following processing:

(1) receiving a switch control command from a processor;

(2) Execute the operation corresponding to the switch control command, and select one or more channels among the multiple RF signals; (3) Perform frequency conversion and amplitude modulation on the selected one or more channels. Preferably, the above step (3) may further include the following processing:

(3.1) receiving a frequency conversion instruction from the processor, and performing frequency conversion processing corresponding to the frequency conversion instruction on the signal from the crystal oscillator;

(3.2) receiving an amplitude modulation instruction from the processor, and performing amplitude modulation processing corresponding to the amplitude modulation instruction on the signal processed by the frequency conversion. In a preferred implementation, the execution body of each step in the method shown in FIG. 7 may be a multiplexer device, which is described below in conjunction with FIG. 3, and the RF signal meter outputs a particular format or format at a specific frequency and power level. Radio frequency signals (eg, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, CMMB, etc.) to the multiplexer. The multi-way splitter of the multiplexer device divides the input RF signal into multiple outputs to the RF switch control module. The processor (for example, a PC) sends a serial port command through RS232 to control the switch control module to turn each RF channel on and off. When the RF switch is turned on, the RF signal of the corresponding path enters the frequency conversion amplitude modulation module, and the PC machine sends the RS232 through the RS232. The serial port command is sent to control the frequency conversion amplitude modulation module to perform frequency synthesis and change the power level, and output to the receiver. The PC then performs calibration of the receiver by controlling the LNA gain of the receiver or the like. The above preferred implementation process is described below in conjunction with FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a calibration test method for a receiver in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, the method mainly includes the following processing: Step S802, the radio frequency signal meter outputs radio frequency signals (for example, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, CMMB, etc.) to multiple channels at a specific frequency and power level. Device 26. Step S804, the power divider of the multiplexer device divides the radio frequency signal into multiple channels (for example, 4 channels, 5 channels, etc.). The following step 4 combines S806 to 4 and S812 describes the processing of the RF signal after the split. It should be noted that the processing flow of each RF signal after the splitting (that is, the sub-flow shown in the figure) is the same. Step S806, the power divider outputs the multi-channel signal to the radio frequency switch (corresponding to the above-mentioned switch control module). Step S808, the RF switch controls the opening and closing of each signal according to an instruction transmitted by the processor (for example, a PC). Among them, the RF switch can open and close one of the multiple channels simultaneously and independently, without affecting each other. Step S810, when a certain RF path is used, the RF signal enters the frequency conversion amplitude modulation module (also referred to as a frequency synthesis module/mixing module), and the frequency conversion amplitude modulation module receives the received serial port instruction according to the processor. The RF signal is frequency converted and amplitude modulated. In the preferred implementation process, the frequency modulation module maintains the encoding format of the input RF signal and the like, and only changes the frequency and power level of the RF signal to meet the gain value calibration of different channels of the receiver and different LNA states. At the same time, since each receiver corresponds to one variable frequency amplitude modulation module, and the frequency conversion amplitude modulation of each module is independent of each other and does not interfere with each other, the calibration of each receiver is independent of each other, and is not mutually exclusive. Step S812, the processor controls each receiver, sets a channel and LNA receiving level matched with the radio frequency path, performs calibration, and saves the calibration parameters to the receiver parameter storage device. In summary, according to the above embodiment of the present invention, in the calibration process of the receiver, the application multiplexer device can divide one RF signal into multiple channels, and the scheme for adjusting the multiple RF signals can be The need to meet the calibration test of multiple terminal receivers of any standard at the same time can greatly reduce the cost of expensive RF instrument resources, improve the efficiency of testing, and realize the effect of mass production test of the terminal receiver. Obviously, those skilled in the art should understand that the above modules or steps of the present invention can be implemented by a general-purpose computing device, which can be concentrated on a single computing device or distributed over a network composed of multiple computing devices. Alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by the computing device, such that they may be stored in the storage device by the computing device, or they may be separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or they may be Multiple modules or steps are made into a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software. The above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the scope of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

A calibration test system for a receiver, comprising: a processor and a radio frequency signal meter, wherein the system further comprises: a multiplexer device, wherein the multiplexer device comprises:

a branching module, configured to receive a radio frequency signal from the radio frequency signal meter, and divide the radio frequency signal into multiple radio frequency signals;

The variable frequency amplitude modulation module is configured to perform frequency conversion and amplitude modulation on one or more of the multiple RF signals from the branching module, and output to each receiver for calibration test.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the multiplexer device further comprises: a switch control module connected between the branching module and the variable frequency amplitude modulation module, configured to receive from the The switch control command of the processor turns on and off the radio frequency path between the shunt module and the variable frequency amplitude modulation module according to the switch control command.

The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the variable frequency amplitude modulation module comprises: an frequency conversion unit, configured to receive a frequency conversion instruction from the processor, and to a crystal oscillator in the frequency conversion unit The output signal performs frequency conversion processing corresponding to the frequency conversion instruction and outputs the same;

An amplitude modulation unit, configured to receive an amplitude modulation instruction from the processor, perform amplitude modulation processing corresponding to the amplitude modulation instruction on an output signal of the frequency conversion unit, and output the amplitude modulation unit;

a mixing unit, configured to perform mixing processing on an output signal of the amplitude modulation unit and an output signal of the branching module;

A band pass filtering unit is configured to perform band pass filtering processing on the output signal of the mixing unit and output.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein

The frequency conversion unit includes: the crystal oscillator, a ∑-modulator, a phase frequency detector, a loop filter, a voltage controlled oscillator, and a digital frequency divider, wherein an output of the crystal oscillator Connected to an input end of the phase frequency detector, an output of the phase frequency detector is connected to an input end of the loop filter, an output end of the loop filter and a voltage controlled oscillator The input terminals are connected, and the output of the voltage controlled oscillator is connected to one of the digital frequency dividers Input, the output of the digital frequency divider is connected to another input end of the phase frequency detector, and the other input end of the digital frequency divider is opposite to the output end of the -eight modulator Connecting, an input end of the ∑-eight modulator is connected to an output end of the crystal oscillator, and another input end of the ∑-Δ modulator is connected to the processor;

The amplitude modulation unit includes: a variable gain amplifier and a power detector, wherein an input end of the variable gain amplifier is connected to an output end of the voltage controlled oscillator, and an output end of the variable gain amplifier is An input of the power detector is coupled, and an output of the power detector is coupled to another input of the variable gain amplifier. A multiplexer device, comprising:

a branching module, configured to receive a radio frequency signal from a radio frequency signal meter, and divide the radio frequency signal into multiple radio frequency signals;

The variable frequency amplitude modulation module is configured to perform frequency conversion and amplitude modulation on one or more of the multiple RF signals from the branching module, and output to each receiver for calibration test. The device according to claim 5, wherein the multiplexer device further comprises: a switch control module, connected between the branching module and the variable frequency amplitude modulation module, for receiving from the processing The switch control command of the device controls the RF path between the shunt module and the variable frequency amplitude modulation module according to the switch control command. The apparatus according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the variable frequency amplitude modulation module comprises: an frequency conversion unit, configured to receive a frequency conversion instruction from the processor, and output signals of a crystal oscillator in the frequency conversion unit Performing frequency conversion processing corresponding to the frequency conversion instruction and outputting;

8. A calibration test method for a receiver, characterized in that the method comprises:

Receiving a radio frequency signal from the radio frequency signal meter;

Dividing the radio frequency signal into multiple radio frequency signals;

One or more of the plurality of radio frequency signals are subjected to frequency conversion and amplitude modulation processing, and are respectively output to respective receivers for calibration test.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the converting and framing the one or more of the plurality of radio frequency signals comprises:

Receiving a switch control command from the processor;

Performing an operation corresponding to the switch control instruction, and selecting one or more channels among the multiple radio frequency signals;

The selected one or more paths are subjected to frequency conversion and amplitude modulation processing.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the converting one or more of the selected one or more channels comprises:

Receiving a frequency conversion instruction from the processor, and performing frequency conversion processing corresponding to the frequency conversion instruction on a signal from the crystal oscillator;

And receiving an amplitude modulation instruction from the processor, and performing amplitude modulation processing corresponding to the amplitude modulation instruction on the frequency-converted signal.