An Active Test Fixture Approach for Testing 28 Gbps Applications Using a Lower Data Rate ATE System

With some applications already requiring data rates above 12.8 Gbps (e.g. 28 Gbps) and given the fact that the current fastest ATE pin electronics card available in the market can only reach 12.8 Gbps, there is a challenge to provide an ATE based solution for these data rates. Since the market for these applications has not justified until now the development of a 28 Gbps ATE pin electronics card, we propose in this paper an active test fixture approach to test application requiring data rates in the 12.8 Gbps to 40 Gbps range using available pin electronics channels with a maximum data rate of 12.8 Gbps together with SiGe MUX and DEMUX modules, frequency multipliers, frequency dividers, band pass filters and amplifiers. This solution does not require any external instrumentation or any modification of the ATE system. We will present results at 28 Gbps using a proof of concept prototype in a loop back configuration. We will also discuss how to address the test fixture design challenges at these data rates.