DesignCon 2022 Schedule Builder

New technologies like advanced driver assistance increase the automation level in modern cars. Implementation of these technologies requires reliable multi-gigabit/s communications between scores of in-vehicle sensors and control units. Since data rates of the mainstream car communication technologies are several orders of magnitude lower than necessary, novel communication protocols arise.

To allow simple interoperability between chipsets, new protocols require complex and rigorous compliance testing. Such testing includes measuring the quality of the transmitted signal and characterization of the communication channel. Compliance testing takes into account the fact that in an automotive environment signals undergo severe disturbances due to power losses, noise, and crosstalk. Even if a signal was perfect at the transmitter, it would get distorted when reaching the receiver, and recovering data from this degraded signal can be a challenge. Thus, to ensure successful data communication, transmitter testing is not sufficient and receiver physical layer (Rx PHY) testing is necessary.

All disturbances found in a car environment are unique compared to the environment encountered in other data interconnection protocols. Keysight and Bitifeye will co-host this technical session and share with the audience what BitifEye has learned from more than 15 years of experience in developing Rx PHY Testing solutions for high-speed interconnect in consumer electronics.

We will describe the advantages and drawbacks of the 3 possible approaches to transmitter emulation and why using versatile programable test instruments like AWGs is a superior solution for testing the Physical Layer of a digital interconnection.

We will provide an example of physical layer noise profiles required in an automotive environment, highlight their uniqueness, and our pioneering work done for generating and combining these noises.

Takeaway

automotive, physical layer, AWG