Testing system for measuring and calibrating the transmission power of EDGE mobiles

In this paper, we propose an alternative process in measuring and calibrating (M&C) the transmission power of EDGE mobiles. First, we propose using a fixed symbol sequence to modulate the carrier of the 8-PSK modulator. Such an arrangement can significantly reduce the number of 8-PSK bursts required in computing the transmission power of the mobile, thus reducing the M&C time. In addition, we re-arrange the transmission of the GMSK and 8-PSK data bursts such that the transmission power of the two corresponding modulators, namely the GMSK modulator and 8-PSK modulator, can be measured within one GSM frame duration. Furthermore, the power levels of the modulators are adjusted automatically between consecutive GSM frames such that all power measurements can be accomplished in the shortest possible time. By reducing the M&C time, the production throughput of the mobiles can be improved. Finally, the new process is implemented in the testing equipment and the actual M&C time based on the new process is presented and compared with that of the conventional process.