DisplayPort Type-C transmitter test solution cuts compliance test times

One of the biggest challenges for DisplayPort compliance testing has been long test times with engineers needing to spend a great deal of time in front of the test setup monitoring the execution in progress.

Adding to this difficultly has been the need to also integrate testing for DisplayPort Type-C, which is supported as one of the alternative modes under USB 3.1 specification.

In addition to full automation and shorter test times, the new release of the Tektronix DisplayPort test solution also integrates support for the Type-C specification including automated test setup and timer pop-ups to help users perform hands-free testing.

“For engineers facing pressure to bring new designs to market on schedule and on budget, saving time during test and measurement can be an important factor in their ultimate success,” said Brian Reich, general manager, Performance Oscilloscopes, Tektronix. “With this solution, we are giving our customers working on DisplayPort designs time back in their day. They can now simply select the test they want to run and work on other tasks while the tests are running.”

One of the key features of this release is the introduction of the DPOJET measurement library which helps in characterising silicon and debug.

If any of the tests fail during compliance testing, users can tap into the DPOJET DisplayPort measurement library for a deeper dive into the failures such as eye diagram mask hit failures and look at the relation between pre-emphasis level vs. voltage swing tests to perform root cause analysis.

The solution also gives users the flexibility to configure measurements at different settings, make configuration changes in existing measurements on the fly and run tests in single-shot or free-run repetitive modes.

The DisplayPort TX automated solution supports the compliance tests per DisplayPort 1.2 Type-C Spec and CTS using the TekExpress framework, a state-of-the-art tool designed for automation.

The backend automation engine is based on Iron Python which uses socket based programming and .Net remoting.

Socket-based scripting interface is a de-facto standard that allows engineers to integrate an automated Tektronix solution into their automation environments.