The new LitePoint IQxel-M™ Bluetooth Advanced measurement system is a major advancement in the speed and efficiency for performing over-the-air testing of Bluetooth low energy peripheral and beacon devices. Using LitePoint’s proprietary measurement techniques, testing Bluetooth devices has been made simple and the system performs comprehensive transmitter and receiver measurements in a matter of seconds. The solution is optimized for both engineering and manufacturing and works with all BLE peripheral and beacon devices, regardless of chipset.

Advanced Measurement Methodology

Bluetooth Smart devices use dedicated advertising channels to transmit beacon signals or to establish a connection with a controller. These advertising channels are distributed across the 2.4 GHz band, providing an excellent method to characterize a device at multiple frequencies. The IQxel-M with Bluetooth Advanced measurement solution uses these advertising channels to perform transmitter and receiver measurements, providing excellent coverage and confidence in the parametric performance of the device. The device is tested using its normal commercial firmware, not test firmware, and therefore improves confidence that the results are correlated with actual performance of real devices.

Applications from Engineering to Manufacturing

In an engineering environment, transmitter power, transmitter quality, and receiver sensitivity are important measurements to perform and IQxel-M performs these quickly, with high accuracy and repeatability. Measurement results are reported on all advertising channels, giving confidence in the RF performance across the 2.4 GHz band. In manufacturing, speed is equally as important as the test coverage, and for most devices, a typical transmitter and receiver test can be performed in <5 seconds for all 3 advertising channels. This is a very rapid test that ensures both the transmitter and receiver are functional and performing within user defined specifications.

LitePoint Bluetooth Advanced Brochure

Get Results Quickly

• Compatible with any Bluetooth low energy peripheral or beacon device
• One test solution works with all chipsets
• No setup required—Device simply needs to be transmitting advertising packets
• No need to install special software on the DUT
• No DUT communication port needed
• RF can be radiated or conducted

Robust RF parametric Test Coverage

• Transmitter power, modulation quality, in-band emissions
• Receiver sensitivity and PER
• Results for Low, Mid, and High channels

Simplifed Over-the-Air Test Setup

• Easy path loss calculation with DUT that has known TX power or RX sensitivity

Evaluation

During the early phases of vendor evaluation and chipset selection, you will wish to evaluate reference designs from various vendors and characterize existing competitive solutions. With Bluetooth Advanced, side-by-side comparisons are fast and easy, and you’ll know the performance of similar devices that may already be on the market.

Design Verification

Chipset vendors will provide a reference design, but you’ll need to do your own component selection, board layout, and antenna design. These have significant impact on the overall RF performance of your device, and you’ll want to characterize your performance relative to industry specifications or the reference design from the chipset manufacturer. With Bluetooth Advanced, you can characterize your design quickly and optimize performance with rapid evaluation of design changes.

Manufacturing

A good design won’t matter if the production line can’t produce consistent quality in the manufacturing process. Simple go/no-go testing isn’t sufficient to catch marginal products and those marginal products are the ones that will disappoint customers. Bluetooth Advanced provides fast, accurate, and thorough testing in a production environment, ensuring only devices that are performing as designed will end up with your customers.

Bluetooth Low Energy Test Coverage