On-chip characterization of RF systems based on envelope response analysis

A simple on-chip procedure for testing embedded RF blocks is presented. It is based on the detection and spectral analysis of the two-tone response envelope of the device under test (DUT). A main difference with similar methods is its inherent simplicity, avoiding a preprocessing stage and resorting to simpler circuitry to process the envelope. As a consequence, the main nonlinearity specifications of the DUT can be easily estimated from the envelope signal without the need of expensive RF test equipment.