Technical Blog | Granite River Labs | United States

MIPI M-PHY® Receiver Conformance Testing for Physical Layer Evaluation

Written by GRL Team | Sep 24, 2024 6:11:20 AM

Developed by the MIPI PHY Working Group of MIPI Alliance, the MIPI M-PHY specification provides a physical layer interface that is mainly used in high-speed applications such as flash memory storage and IPC communications.

To evaluate the M-PHY physical layer functionality of MIPI products, MIPI M-PHY test suite like the GRL-MIPI-MPHY-HS-RXA automation software comes in useful. This test suite is aimed at validating M-PHY receiver products in support of the work being directed by the MIPI Alliance. The tests contained in this suite are designed to determine if a receiver product conforms to specifications defined in the MIPI Alliance Specification for M-PHY.

 

Test setup requirements

Automation software provides a more efficient way to perform M-PHY conformance testing rather than using traditional manually driven methods that are generally both time-consuming and error prone, tying up valuable equipment and resources. The test time can also be further reduced with the software’s multi-threading of SigTest. By also supporting variable ISI automation, the automation software enables calibration to be performed with minimum reconfiguration of the setup, which allows measurements to be more fully automated.

To increase test efficiency for M-PHY High-Speed receiver conformance, a high-performance oscilloscope of ≥ 50 GHz bandwidth and a Bit Error Rate Tester (BERT) that is capable of pattern generation and loopback error detection are required. 

Finally, it's important to ensure that the SMA and other cables used in the test process match.

 

M-PHY High-Speed receiver calibration 

Examples of MIPI M-PHY High Speed receiver calibration setup.

 

M-PHY High-Speed receiver level and jitter calibration are performed at specified High Speed Gear A/B data rates, with and without ISI generation, per conformance test requirements. The BERT will output the test signal through attenuators to lower signal amplitudes to the appropriate levels for the respective High-Speed Gear. When performing ISI calibration, the setup will include a conformant variable or fixed ISI channel as the ISI source.

The signal will be validated and measured for stress tolerance to final stressed eye conformance. SigTest analysis will then be carried out in the final calibrated eye diagram to achieve the final stressed eye calibration.

 

M-PHY High-Speed receiver conformance testing 

Examples of MIPI M-PHY High-Speed receiver conformance test setup.

 

For the High-Speed receiver conformance tests, observable bits of minimum 3E+10 (@ 1E-10 target BER) or 3E+12 (@ 1E-12 target BER) will be transmitted to the device under test and measured. The device under test must report zero received errors to achieve conformance.

 

A quick and easy way to test your MIPI M-PHY products

Get the knowledge and equipment you need for reliable MIPI M-PHY conformance testing services that match MIPI Alliance Specifications to a T. Contact us today for a specialized consultation or check out our MIPI conformance testing services for more information.