Our daily activities rely on a wide range of radio-frequency (RF) receivers. These are designed to achieve certain performance requirements and meet published specifications though often in a test lab environment. To ensure reliable operation, testing with nonideal or impaired signals is essential to characterization and verification of receiver performance and behavior.
This application note answers five key questions: Why do we test receivers? Which parameters do we measure? How do we test receivers? How do we simulate real-world conditions? And What test equipment is required?