Mobile phone tester bridges gap from lab to field

The new Yokogawa VC3300 mobile communication tester is a high-end WCDMA/GSM mobile phone tester that is very fast, highly accurate, compact and easy to use.

The new Yokogawa VC3300 mobile communication tester is a high-end WCDMA/GSM mobile phone tester that is very fast, highly accurate, compact and easy to use.

It also has an architecture that will allow easy migration to future mobile phone functionality.

The new tester is designed for applications in the repair, RF tuning and final testing of mobile phones, and is targeted at the mobile phone production and high-end mobile phone repair markets, for which its combination of features and functionality offers an excellent price/performance ratio.

The increasing adoption of dual-mode WCDMA/GSM mobile phones is creating a need for high throughput test equipment that can check the wireless alignment, call signalling and wireless characteristics of these phones on the production line and at repair and service centres.

The VC3300 is designed to address this market by bridging the gap between the existing expensive test systems and low-cost go/no-go testers.

Existing high-end testers tend to have emerged from R and D departments and - although fast and accurate - impose significant cost burdens on their users as they are large, difficult to use, and expensive.

Low-end go/no-go testers, on the other hand, fulfil a useful function for a limited range of basic tests, but only encompass a subset of the requirements of a production line or high-end service centre.

"The VC3300 can carry out all the applicable functions of a high-end tester - including alignment on the production line and service testing - but at only half the price", says Jan Haagh, Yokogawa's European Product Manager for Wireless Products: "Furthermore, it can carry out these tests with a speed and measurement accuracy equivalent to those of a high-end tester although it is only half the size and weight".

"This optimum design was realised by focusing on the specifications used by high-end testers and eliminating redundancy".

Radio characteristics are typically measured within 0.2s, a speed that is 50 times faster than a typical go/no-go tester.

The unit can also work in fully stand-alone mode, with no need for an additional PC to manage it.

The new tester supports all the relevant mobile phone standards and frequency bands including GSM (GSM850, P-GSM, E-GSM, R-GSM, DCS1800 and PCS1900) and WCDMA (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6), with future support planned for GPRS, Edge (EGPRS) and TD-SCDMA.

It will also measure the relevant WCDMA radio characteristics as defined in document 3GPP TS 34.121.

The VC3300 measures only 426 x 177 x 300mm and weighs 10kg.

It has an 8.4in colour XGA LCD with 1024 x 768 resolution.

It incorporates Ethernet, RS232 and USB interfaces plus an analogue RGB video output.

Back to top