LitePoint Confidential © 2014 LitePoint, A Teradyne Company. All rights reserved. NFC Test in Manufacturing Pi Huang.

LitePoint Confidential

Li teP o i n t C onf i dent i a l© 2014 L i teP o i n t , A Ter adyne C om pany. A l l r i ghts r eser ved .

NFC Test in Manufacturing

Pi Huang

LitePoint Confidential

Agenda

• NFC Market

• NFC overview

• NFC manufacturing tests

• IQnfc introduction

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NFC Overview

• Near field communication (NFC) is a set of short-range wireless communication technologies

• NFC offers safe yet simple communication between electronic devices• It has gained traction in the market and is poised to build global scale- Dramatic increase of NFC enabled devices in the last few years - Originally slow to gain traction due to fragmented standards and lack of

applications- It’s evolving from trial to commercial status around the world

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Market Overview

• Most NFC deployment today are in smartphones- Smartphones accounted for 80% of NFC devices shipped in 2013- 1in 3 smartphones now comes with NFC (Strategy Analytics, Aug 13)- IHS Technology forecast 1.2 bn phones to come with NFC in 2018, with

CAGR 40%• Standalone NFC chips dominated- 9 in 10 NFC enabled smartphones use standalone NFC chips in 2013- Combo chips to gain more market share in 2014

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Card Emulation Mode• Transport & Ticketing• Access Control• Mobile Payment

RF 13.

56M

Hz

Load M

odulatio

n

Phone (Passive acting as a Tag), Reader (Active)

RF 13.56MHzLoad Modulation

Reader Mode• Smart Posters• ID Check• Mobile Advertising

Phone (Active), Tag (Passive)

RF 13.56MHz

Peer to Peer Mode• Data Exchange• P2P Payment

Phone (Active), Device (Active)

Applications

Matching circuit and antenna

NFC Operating Modes

NFC Chip

SIM or SE

CPU

OS

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MFG Challenges for NFC• NFC operates differently compared to other wireless technologies

• Near field induction vs. far field • Relies on sharp frequency response to provide efficient power transfer

• Frequency response is dependent on the resonant circuit and coil • Resonant circuits are sensitive to variation

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Ra

dio

Baseban

d

Matchin

g

AntennaHigh Q Response

f

S21

ferror ferror• Antenna is getting smaller• Small antenna has much smaller tolerance for the tuning circuit component

variation

30x30mm 17x30mm 10x10mm

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What Can Happen in MFG?

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Production Issues• Wrong value components• Wrong tolerance components• Out of spec components

Performance Impact• Higher power consumption• Reduced operating range

Poor User Experience• Financial transactions fail• Delays/failure on mass transit entry• etc. 500 kHz Shift (on a 1 MHz BW Signal)

Nearly 50% reduction in transmitted energy

*

*: 5% tolerance values

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LitePoint IQnfc Test Solution

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• Optimized NFC Test System- Fast and simple testing for manufacturing — one-click operation to

characterize Device Under Test - Detailed RF parametric measurements for lab — intuitive GUI for waveform

analysis - Universal Test Head for both Polling and Listening device emulation - Compact and rugged design

• Good test coverage - Covers all key NFC standards- Frequency response measurement

• Flexible- Multi-level software APIs for test flow customization- IQnfc can be used with LitePoint or customer designed test heads

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IQnfc Test Configuration

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DUT

Test fixture

IQnfc Test Instrument

IQnfc Test Head

Transceiver

CW generator

Analyzer

Transceiver port (TR)

Monitor port (MON)

Switch

Switch

ControlTest Head Control

Transceiver port (TR)

Monitor port (MON)

Test Head Control

Tuning circuit

Monitor Coil

Transceiver Coil

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Smartphone NFC Example

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ApplicationProcessor

NFC Die

EEPROM

Secure Element

OR

C

LC

R

R

Resonant circuit Smaller coilMulti-standard chip

OR

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Recommended Tests for Manufacturing

• Purpose of manufacturing tests are to ensure production and component quality- Manufacturing defects and process variances- Component defects and tolerance problems- Assembly errors and defects

• For NFC manufacturing, we recommend the following tests- Resonance sweep: ensure all of the components in the transceiver

RF path are correctly installed, within tolerance, and no assembly defects exist

- A basic functional test: ensure the DUT can both receive and transmit correctly. This checks that the IC has not been damaged during assembly and its pins are correctly soldered

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Standard and Operation Mode Coverage

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Test mode(NFC Forum)

ISO Standard Initiator Target

NFC A 14443A (EMVco) √ √

NFC B 14443B (EMVco) √ √

NFC F 18092 (FeliCa) √ √

NFC P2P 18092 peer to peer √ √

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NFC Conformance Test

NFC Forum EMVCo

Poller Coil-Generate Field-Sense response from DUT

Listener Coil-Sense Poll field strength-Respond to initiator -Sense response from DUT

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OperationVolume

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IQnfc Software

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• User friendly GUI for detailed RF parametric results- Similar look and feel to IQxel/IQxel-M/IQxstream- Frequency sweep mode- Initiator mode- Target mode

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IQnfc Software

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• Automated Test Program for manufacturing- Integrated Test Plan Editor- Single-click operation- Chipset agnostic due to signaling operation

• Programming interfaces: SCPI and IQmeasure (C based)

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Golden Unit vs. IQnfc in Production

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Golden unit IQnfc

Functional test 1 standard and mode All key standards, both initiator and target modes

RF parametric test

N/A Frequency responseModulation quality Other RF parametric tests

Speed Fast Very fast

Cost Very low Low; <0.4 cent (based on 3 yr depreciation)

Summary Manual process;Detect gross failure only;Can not screen marginal units;Can not analyze failure;

Automated turnkey solution;Detect gross and marginal failure; Provide quantitative failure analysis;

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Summary

• NFC is to become a common technology in smart phones

• Golden DUT approach in production not enough to ensure product quality

• IQnfc focuses on NFC physical layer characterization• Fast and simple testing for manufacturing- Easy to setup and simple to operate

• Wide array of physical layer measurements for labs- Detailed RF parametric analysis through intuitive GUI

• Functional verification on all key NFC standards through reduced signaling - Verify system level operation while minimizing test time

• Rugged and compact design

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