U7231A DDR3 Compliance Test Application for Infiniium Series Oscilloscopes

Introduction

Test, debug and characterize your DDR3 designs quickly and easily

The Keysight Technologies, Inc. U7231A DDR3 compliance test application provides a fast and easy way to test, debug and characterize your DDR3 designs. The tests performed by the U7231A software are based on the JEDEC1 JESD79-3E and JESD79-3-1 DDR3 SDRAM Specification. In addition, the application features Custom mode, which covers crucial measurements such as eye-diagram, mask testing, ringing and other tests that are not covered in the specifications but are critical for characterizing DDR3 devices. The test application offers a user-friendly setup wizard and a comprehensive report that includes margin analysis.

DDR3 is an evolutionary upgrade to DDR2 and DDR1 memory systems. DDR3 technology enables even higher bandwidth for data transfer than DDR2 and allows you to build devices with even smaller chip footprints that consume less power and generate less heat. DDR3 achieves these advances with enhanced fine ball-grid array (FBGA) packaging, enhanced on‑die termination, self calibration and automatic self-refresh for improved control of signal integrity.

Signal integrity is crucial for memory system interoperability. Reference clock jitter measurements help you ensure that jitter is well within the specifications, which is the key to reliable and interoperable modular memory systems. At the same time, electrical and timing characteristics of other signals are critical as well, to ensure the memory system functions correctly and stays error free.

The U7231A DDR3 compliance test application is compatible with Keysight Infiniium digital storage oscilloscopes.

Features

The U7231A DDR3 compliance test application offers several features to simplify the validation of your DDR3 designs:

• New setup wizard for quick setup, configuration and test
• Enhanced execution speed and proven test algorithm for clock test, which minimizes your compliance test time
• User-selected tests and configurations based on JEDEC JESD79-3E and JESD79-3-1 Specification data rate and user-defined speed for embedded designs
• Unique technique to provide read‑write burst signal separation on the same bus in real-time mode, allowing powerful debug and analysis
• Ability to analyze the loading effect of adjacent RANK of the same memory channel
• Test framework provides powerful characterization through multiple trials that show a full array of statistics for each measurement and returns the worst measurement value
• Automatically perform derating table calculations for setup and hold time measurements based on slew rate

Comprehensive test coverage

With the DDR3 compliance test application, you can use the same oscilloscope you use for everyday debugging to perform automated testing and margin analysis based on the JEDEC electrical and timing specifications. The application automatically configures the oscilloscope for each test and provides informative results. It includes margin analysis indicating how close your device comes to passing or failing the test for each specification.

Some of the difficulties in performing DDR3 tests are connecting to the target device, configuring the oscilloscope, performing the tests and analyzing the measured results. The DDR3 compliance test application does most of this work for you. If you discover a problem with your device, the Custom mode feature in the test application and debug tools in the oscilloscope are available to aid in root-cause analysis.

Easy test definition

The test application enhances the usability of Keysight Infiniium oscilloscopes for testing DDR3 devices. The Keysight automated test framework guides you quickly through the steps required to define the setup, perform the tests and view the test results. On the environmental setup page, you can select the type of DDR3 devices, and the framework automatically filters the tests based on your selection. You can then select a category of tests or specify individual tests. The user interface is designed to minimize unnecessary reconnections, which saves time and minimizes potential operator error. You can save the tests and configurations as project files and recall them later for quick testing and review of previous results. Clear menus let you perform tests with minimum mouse clicks.

Configurability and guided connection

The U7231A DDR3 compliance test application provides flexibility in your test setup. The application lets you define controls for critical test parameters such as voltage threshold values, number of waveforms used for analysis and customizable violation settings. Once you have configured the tests, the connection page will display the connection diagram for the test you have selected.

With the multiple test trial capability, you can extensively characterize the performance of your DDR3 devices. You can run the selected tests until the stop condition is met. The application will then save the worst-case conditions and help you track down the anomalies in your signals.

Comprehensive results analysis

In addition to providing you with measurement results, the U7231A DDR3 compliance test application reports how close you are to the specified limit. You can specify the level at which warnings are to be issued. You are provided with a full array of statistics for each measurement, and you can save worst-case conditions to extensively test the performance of your device.

Thorough performance reporting

The U7231A DDR3 compliance test application generates thorough HTML reports that capture the performance, status and margins of your device. It also captures screen shots of critical measurements for your reference and documentation. This report is suitable for printing and sharing with your vendors, customers or colleagues.