TD terminal test focus shifts to production line instrument stability is the key

Recently, the preliminary evaluation results of China Mobile’s 6 million TD mobile phone tenders opened the curtain for China Mobile's 2011 TD terminal development. Under the background of the so-called 30 million terminal demand, the industrial chain has waited until the largest cake since TD commercialization. In particular, the test instrument industry, which is mainly based on domestically-produced forces, is about to usher in the sweet period of the market after a difficult start. However, the change in test requirements and the addition of more manufacturers or even “very active” manufacturers in the TD field have made The market's competitive pressure is even greater. At the same time, there are still deficiencies in the TD test instrument industry, and TD-LTE trials have begun. In order to maintain the advantages in this field for a long time, domestic manufacturers still need to go further.

The market space gate still exists the test instrument to the development of the industry chain is self-evident, so when the industry prospect is good, the manufacturer will also be locked in this market, the current situation in the field of TD terminal testing is the case. Data shows that the communications instrument market will show rapid growth in the next three years. The global instrument industry will grow at an annual rate of 11%, and China will reach 13%. Moreover, the industry is a long-term development industry and the continuous evolution of mobile communications. , From 3G to 4G R & D and even follow-up technology has been in development, as long as keeping up with the pace, the test instrument industry will continue to develop.

In the face of this growth, the old TD terminal test vendors such as StarPoint and Datang Mobile, wait-and-see vendors such as Rohde & Schwarz, and emerging vendors such as Alfass have all started to exert themselves.

Alfas said that it is currently adopting a method of cooperation with Xinghe Bright Spot in terms of TD test instrumentation to provide its terminal test instrument with a hardware platform and a GSM conformance test system. In terms of TD-LTE, its 7100 product has been shipped. For some chip and terminal manufacturers to provide research and development, but also in the China Mobile Research Institute has also been used.

Director of Datang mobile instrumentation product line Kong Fei said in an interview that Datang Mobile relied on the TD agreement conformance testing instrument as a breakthrough point, currently has a certain sales scale, follow-up will continue to follow up with other product lines, and ultimately hopes to be big. Tang mobile instrumentation product lines can establish product systems covering R&D, testing, production, certification, etc., and become organizations that are highly resistant to risks. In terms of TD-LTE, TD-LTE terminal protocol conformance meters have been released to the public in October. IR interface simulation instruments are being developed and debugged and are expected to be released by the end of next year.

At the same time, from the perspective of the current TD terminal industry, the terminal quality has yet to be improved. From the perspective of testing, there are many reasons. First of all, the terminal manufacturers have not invested too much resources into the testing process. In addition, the test instruments are expensive, and the investment Since there is a wait-and-see attitude and the quality of the terminal cannot be guaranteed, it is now necessary to promote the terminal manufacturers to improve their test capabilities and test conditions as soon as possible. In this regard, relevant government departments have already put forward requirements for terminal manufacturers.

Second, the incompleteness of the test instrument is also one of the reasons. Looking at the current domestic instrumentation industry, especially in the high-end and core instrumentation, the follow-up of domestic manufacturers is almost blank, and more is the development of the edge instrument, Kong Fei thinks this It is due to the lack of core technology. Domestic manufacturers have insufficient technology and talent reserves. In addition, foreign companies have basically divided fields, so there is no suitable entry point to enter.

In order to break through the shortcomings of TD test instruments, in the absence of active enthusiasm of foreign manufacturers and insufficient strength of existing domestic manufacturers, we need a strong manufacturer to participate in and provide stable and high-performance instrumentation to promote the progress of the terminal industry. . Kong Fei said that Datang Mobile hopes to reflect its value in high-end areas that can break technological monopolies and reflect technological value. Currently, Datang Mobile has experience in the TD network side and has a strong voice in the 3GPP standards. It is Datang Mobile's advantages and responsibilities to spread the TD market advantage to various industrial chains including the instrumentation industry.

Non-signaling test has gradually become mainstream Since the commercial trial in 2008, the bottlenecks of TD terminal links have been broken one by one. In this process, TD terminal test instruments can be described as indispensable. Nowadays, when the TD terminal is in large-scale commercial use, the test instrument will still guarantee the high performance and stability of the factory terminal. However, unlike before, the requirements for TD terminal test have undergone new changes.

According to relevant test instrument manufacturer sources, the current operator terminal selection, certification agencies and R & D institutions are almost saturated with the demand for TD terminal test instruments, and this market itself will not be large, and the TD terminal market is expanding. As well as related departments promoting the TD terminal manufacturers to improve the terminal test level and other factors, the demand for test instruments from the production line will greatly increase. At the same time, after several years of development in the TD terminal industry, terminal tests on the production line side are not subject to testing in the signaling mode. The test instrument does not need to simulate various functions of the base station and the network. The terminal does not need to complete the base station registration, paging, and other calls. During the call, only the calibration of the radio frequency and description of the hardware performance are required. Xinghe bright spot technical manager Fu Chen predicts, “The test of the entire production line will enter the non-signaling test phase by the middle of next year.”

Fu Chen also said: "After entering the non-signaling test phase, terminal manufacturers or foundries can greatly increase test efficiency, thereby accelerating the time to market, and at the same time, testing the price of the instrument greatly reduces the burden on manufacturers. The test only needs to be used when sampling the product.” The GSM era also experienced such an evolutionary stage.

At the same time, stability is currently a major issue for TD terminal test instruments. Kong Fei said that stability is a long-term accumulation process. This requires support in many aspects. The first is the standardized process control, and the cost required to build process control. And the personnel is high, but the scale of the current manufacturer is not enough; Secondly, a complete supply chain system is needed; Finally, the core technology is also needed. Many core technologies of instrument manufacturers, including software and hardware, are purchased from abroad, and then secondary development. It is difficult to ensure that the products produced in this way are not affected by a BUG and cause the instrument to become unstable.