Test and Measurement News

dScope helps improve the quality of mobile phone audio

Cambridge, UK: Prism Sound has supplied a dScope Series III audio analyzer and VSIO adapter to Business Line Cellular Systems, a division of NXP Semiconductors. The company is using the unit to test the audio performance of Handsfree and Earphone amplifiers for mobile telephones.

Neri and dScope Series III

NXP Business Line Cellular Systems is a multi-site, multi-national organisation with offices in France, The Netherlands, China, Germany and Switzerland. Its activities cover the whole semiconductor content of a cellular phone.

The Zurich office, which is where the dScope Series III is being deployed, mainly focuses on Baseband Processor and Baseband-Audio Interface development.

Mixed-Signal IC Design Engineer, Filippo Neri, says: "Our work involves the design of Handsfree and Earphone amplifiers for the receive path of cellular phones, as well as microphone inputs for the transmit path. All of these paths need to be carefully evaluated with a dedicated test instrument that is able to perform a variety of checks to ensure that our chips are in spec. We also test audio quality to evaluate frequency response and the overall quality of the audio signals we are generating."

Neri investigated a number of test solutions before choosing the Prism Sound dScope Series III. Prism Sound has been supplying successful high quality analogue and digital audio test solutions for over eighteen years. The company's solutions provide state-of-the-art testing capabilities, backed up by consultancy and support services recognised as the best in the industry.

The dScope Series III audio analyzer is a comprehensive and powerful measurement system for analogue and digital audio generation and analysis, including digital audio carrier testing and testing of Windows® sound devices. This industrial-strength audio test and measurement system comprises a Windows PC (XP® and Vista® compatible) software application coupled with an external high-precision audio I/O processor for equipment-under-test (EUT) connections.

Business Line Cellular Systems specified a dScope Series III with a VISIO adapter, which allows the unit to be connected to the company's evaluation board, providing a digital interface over 12S bus for generating and receiving signals.

Neri adds: "We chose the dScope Series III because it offers the best performance, the best price and incorporates very easy to use software. It has solved almost all of our audio testing problems and is allowing us to investigate virtually every performance versus specification issue that we have with our audio amplifiers. We particularly like the fact that it can analyze THD up to whatever harmonics we specify and we are very impressed by the easy to use software interface and all the options that it is offering. The documentation process is very straightforward and it is proving to be an excellent solution for our audio measurement needs. We are also very impressed with the level of after sales support provided by Prism Sound."

Business Line Cellular Systems is now considering the purchase of a second dScope Series III to further enhance its testing capabilities.