MT8852B Bluetooth tester

Anritsu has introduced what it claims is the world’s first integrated test set to measure the new generation of Bluetooth low-energy products, as well as a solution to support the enhanced power control feature.

The options for the MT8852B test set allow engineers to conduct highly accurate and efficient tests on Bluetooth devices during both the development and manufacturing stages.

The Bluetooth SIG is currently developing a new version of the standard to enable wireless technology to be embedded into products that receive their power from simple button cell batteries.

This is expected to become commonplace in a wide range of applications, including health care monitors, sports and fitness sensors, industrial sensors and remote displays such as wrist watches.

As well as performing Bluetooth low-energy measurements in a fully automated test script, a PC application is supplied that enables developers to see the low-energy packet’s power and modulation characteristics graphically in Windows. This makes the option suitable for both high-speed manufacturing test and design characterisation in the development lab.

The company is also introducing an option for testing devices that support the Bluetooth EPC feature. This is being included in the specification to make standard Bluetooth devices more tolerant of rapid power level changes, especially power fades.

This update to the specification has introduced a new RF test case that is supported through software option MT8852B-23.

The MT8852B can test the adaptive frequency hopping feature of Bluetooth that facilitates coexistence with 2.4 GHz 802.11 WLAN products.

Support software includes BlueSuite Pro3 PC application for viewing all Bluetooth packet waveforms and BlueTest for automating high-volume production test.