Low-cost phase noise testing of complex RF ICs using standard digital ATE

This paper introduces a low-cost technique for phase noise testing of complex RF devices. The technique is based on the acquisition of the signal delivered on the IF output by a standard digital Automated Test Equipment (ATE). A dedicated digital processing algorithm is proposed that permits to achieve phase noise evaluation from the captured binary data. An experimental setup is developed to validate the proposed technique and measurements on actual analog signals demonstrate a very good agreement with conventional phase noise measurements.