Test and Measurement

The SPPDG electronics research and development laboratory is a diverse facility with state of the art assembly, test and evaluation capabilities.

The SPPDG test laboratory is installed in an eight-bay, 3000 square foot, Class 1000 clean room,  which is sufficiently clean that bare wafers and integrated circuits can be tested "in the open" for long periods without significant contamination by airborne particles.  With a concentration on both high clock rate digital circuits and systems, analog radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs), and mixed signal integrated circuits and systems, the capabilities are in place to characterize materials, discrete passive and active components; digital, analog, and mixed-signal ICs, multichip modules (MCMs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), and complete prototype digital and mixed-signal processor systems.  We have also been working for more than a decade to strengthen our capability to evaluate optical components and subsystems as well.  The following photo depicts an example of the type of analog test suite that we can assemble from our pool of laboratory equipment to test analog systems or integrated circuits that are under development by our team.

Microwave linearity measurements are typical of test lab bench configurations.

The following photo depicts an example of the type of the type of digital test suite that we can assemble from our pool of equipment to test digital systems or integrated circuits that are under development by our team.  This particular equipment suite was assembled to test 80 gigabit/second multiplexer and demultiplexer integrated circuits designed by our team.  Our ability to assemble these test suites very rapidly is enabled by our substantial equipment inventory, and the fact that all laboratory benches are both movable and reconfigurable with very little effort.

Photograph of complete test setup for 80 Gbps integrated circuit testing.

Interconnect, Passive Device and Material Characterization

This capability exists to characterize signal interconnects of many different types, including transmission lines on multichip modules or printed circuit boards, integrated circuit connections, and any type of connections to or from a device.  New dielectric materials such as ferroelectrics have been characterized, along with many types of discrete and embedded integral passive electrical components.  These investigations are performed with a broad range of test instrumentation, with each instrument listed in order of increasing frequency capability.

• Kelvin micro-ohmmeter (DC)
• Low frequency inductance/capacitance/resistance meter (LCR) (40 Hz-130 MHz)
• Capacitance-voltage (CV) meter (1 MHz)
• Mid-frequency LCR (75 KHz-30 MHz)
• RF impedance analyzer (1 MHz-1 GHz)
• Low frequency network analysis (300 KHz-1.8 GHz)
• Two-port network analyzers (45 MHz-110 GHz; and 180-220 GHz)
• Four-port network analyzer to 40 GHz
• Single ended and differential time domain reflectometry (TDR) and transmission (TDT) (9 psec edge rate)

Active Circuit and System Characterization

This category of testing requires equipment that is capable of generating signals to be applied to the device under test (DUT), and acquiring output signals from the DUT.  Our test equipment for these tasks includes a full range of measurement capabilities, ranging from DC up to 220 GHz frequencies, including bit error rate testing (BERT) up to 40 GHz; and a network analysis capability up to 220 GHz.

Highlights of the hundreds of items of test equipment in our laboratory include:

Electronic Equipment:

• Semiconductor parameter analyzer (DC)
• Low frequency logic analyzers (50-100 MHz generation and acquisition)
• High frequency logic analyzers (1 GHz acquisition)
• Noise figure meter (10 Hz-2 GHz)
• Digital pattern and pulse generators (50 MHz-3 GHz)
• Bit error rate instrumentation (100 KHz-40 GHz)
• Phase noise measurement system (up to 12 GHz) 
• Microwave counters (10 Hz-18 GHz)
• Spectrum analyzers (100 Hz-50 GHz)
• Focus Microwaves  Noise Parameter System (2 GHz-50 GHz)
• Focus Microwaves Load Pull System (2 GHz-50 GHz)
• Real time oscilloscopes (up to 15 GHz)
• Sampling oscilloscopes (up to 70 GHz)
• Microwave power meter (100 KHz-170 GHz)
• Signal generation equipment (up to 170 GHz)

Optical Equipment:

• Optical spectrum analyzer 600 nm to 1700 nm
• Broadband photodetectors to 25 GHz
• Lightwave transmitter and receiver to 10 gigabits/second

Antenna Characterization and Noise

The SPPDG laboratory includes at 12 x 12 x 24 foot ETS Lindgren anechoic chamber, capable of testing radio frequency systems from 800 MHz to 40 GHz.  The room is lined with radiation-absorbing material, and test devices are placed on a rotating platform for measurement by the horn antenna (pictured) at the far end of the chamber.  This facility has been used to characterize prototype antennas and analyze emissions from electronic components and systems.

Mayo also has an ETS Lindgren Series 81 shield room used to attenuate external radio frequency interference, allowing sensitive noise measurements.  The room is 15 x 22 x 8 foot, and has been measured at greater than 100 dB attenuation from 100 kHz to 40 GHz.

Finally, the test laboratory itself is housed in a four-bay, 2700 square foot Class 1000 clean room; the shield room pictured above is incorporated into one corner of the test laboratory, i.e., in a “room within a room” configuration.  One bay of the test laboratory is shown in the photograph immediately below.

Last modified Monday, October 08, 2007