Case Study: Qualcomm Atheros achieves 200X faster WLAN test speeds with National Instruments PXI and LabVIEW FPGA

Qualcomm Atheros Improves WLAN Test Speed by 200X

Qualcomm Atheros, a leader in wireless technologies, faced the challenge of reducing WLAN test times and costs while improving accuracy as device complexity grew with new standards like 802.11ac. The geometric increase in possible gain setting combinations resulted in hundreds of thousands of data points, making characterization with traditional instruments a slow and inefficient process.

National Instruments provided a solution using their NI PXIe-5644R vector signal transceiver and LabVIEW FPGA Module. This software-designed approach allowed Qualcomm Atheros to program the onboard FPGA for synchronized digital control and on-instrument data processing. The solution from National Instruments delivered a 200x reduction in test time compared to traditional rack-and-stack instruments, enabling full gain table sweeps to acquire 300,000 data points for superior device characterization.

Qualcomm Atheros

Doug Johnson

Qualcomm Atheros