Micropross Qi 测试方案协助客户STMicroelectronics 通过Tx的Qi认证

通过以下的一问一答，STMicro认可Micropross 在缩短Qi测试复杂度上提供了巨大的帮助，能快速的让STMicro将产品推向市场。

 

26/01/2018

Joint interview with Christian BEIA, product marketing for wireless power transmitter products, within Industrial and Power Conversion division at STMicroelectronics, Milan - Italy and Stephane Czeck,  Marketing Director at Micropross.

 

Wireless charging has shifted from being a purely accessory oriented market to being embedded directly in high end devices, such as mobile phones, phablets, tablets. The motto of standard promotion groups such as the Wireless Power Consortium is very clear: now is the time to cut the power cable, and act in favor of global mobility.

Let’s take a look at what’s happening at STMicroelectronics for Wireless Charging TX products, with Christain Beia, product marketing manager. We asked him a few questions about his wireless charging team testing requirements and how Micropross test equipement could accelerate their time to market, while still making no compromise on the quality of their products.

 

 

Micropross : What was your main challenge regarding your wireless charging product ? 
Christian Beia : 'It was obtainning the certification quickly, with an uncompromised quality. For the market launch of STWBC-EP, our new 15W TX, the WPC certification of our STEVAL-ISB044V1 reference design was a must. This allows to prove to our customers that embedding our IC, they can easily obtain certification from the WPC on their own design and put the Qi logo on it. This certification process leverages a network of authorized test laboratories, scattered in various places in the world, mostly in Asia.

 

MP : What are you expecting from your test tool ? 
CB : We were looking to offer our customers the best in class products, and this is achieved by submitting our designs to extensive test campaigns, which go well beyond the requirements of the WPC certification program. We therefore need our test tools to offer a high level of flexibility, customize physical parameters, generate packets with errors, in order to precisely characterize the performance of our design, its robustness, and their ability to act in case something unexpected occurs during the power transfer (unfortunately uncertified wireless chargers can be found on the market, which offers no guarantee on their respect of the Qi specification).

MP : Was automation part of your requirements ?
CB : Yes, in order to accelerate our time to market and make the best possible use of our engineering hours. The concept of “tool automation” applies to different aspects of the user experience. First, during pre-conformance testing, it is very interesting to use an automated test tool because, obviously, this allows to get test results faster. 
Then, the validation engineer can be sure that the test procedure is totally repeatable. And finally, using an automated test tool avoids any internal disputes around test specification interpretation. The tool would give a verdict, based on proven result analysis routines, which represent what the verdict would be when going for official device certification testing.

MP : Is automation valuable also during the Validation & Verification (V&V) phase?
CB : Sure! Working with an automated test tool offers numerous benefits. The possibility to play test sequences on the design in an automated manner allows the test operator to get test data faster, to get a deep understanding of the performance of the device under test, and be able to identify issues and correct them before we identify them.

 

 

Micropross’ answser to those requirements was a fully automated test bench, combining automation and flexibility.

Stephane Czeck, Micropross Marketing Director will help us undestand Micropross Qi solution offer.

 

Micropross : What Micropross did to satisfy Mr Beia’s team requirement ?
Stephane Czeck: We proposed a fully automated Qi test solution. Sold as a turnkey solution (hardware, software, accessories), the Micropross tool allows to perform all test cases defined inside the Qi specification in an automated manner.
Physical condition generation, timing measurement, and test verdict generation happen without human intervention. All necessary measurement instrumentation is integrated inside the hardware, which makes it useless to use, for example, an oscilloscope to measure timings. At the end of a test session, it is possible to automatically generate test reports, which can be shared with colleagues, partners, suppliers to exchange information in the most convenient way possible. 
Traditionally, a full conformance campaign on the Qi power transmitter would last 2 days. The Micropross solution makes it possible in just a few hours.