Agilent selected by ST-Ericsson

"The characterization of our RF transceiver requires a huge number of complex RF and digital measurements mixed together," said Sylvain Bertrand, ST-Ericsson, RF broadband validation manager. "Agilent is able to accurately characterize 2G, 3G and LTE technologies in RF and over the DigRF digital bus used in mobile phones. The total solution significantly improves our time-to-market capabilities, while giving us the incredible platform flexibility and expandability required in today's competitive market." The radio transceiver is a crucial part of any mobile phone because it is the key between the digital portion of the phone and the cellular network. ST-Ericsson's multistandards testing of smart RF transceivers requires a broad range of RF analyzers and sources such as the Agilent PXA signal analyzer; MXG signal generator; DigRF emulator, adapter and tester; RF power meter; and precision power supply, plus software dedicated to the vectorial signal such as Agilent Signal Studio, 89600 VSA (vector signal analysis) and X-Series measurement applications. Agilent measurement experts delivered an integrated RF and digital test solution that combined industry-leading hardware with application-specific software. "It was critical to meet the stringent cellular specifications from GSM to LTE, including W-CDMA, and TD-SCDMA with both speed and uncompromising accuracy. Our innovative laboratory solution delivers a 10X improvement over previous methods in system-characterization test time," said Guy Séné, president of Agilent's Electronic Measurement Group. "The unmatched combination of hardware, software and support is characteristic of our 60-plus years of market leadership in electronic testing, and it spans R&D through validation and characterization. Agilent's unique approach not only addressed the technical requirements but also lowered the total cost of the solution."