Common Devices Under Test

PCIe physical layer testing typically applies to the following product types:

• Motherboards
• Graphics Cards
• NVMe Solid-State Drives (SSDs)
• Network Interface Cards (NICs)
• System Boards for Servers or Industrial Control
• PCIe Expansion Devices or Adapter Cards (e.g., M.2 to PCIe)
• PHY Chips and SerDes Interface Design Verification Modules

PCIe Test Specifications

Key test specifications include:

• Electrical Characteristics: Such as voltage swing, steady-state levels, input/output impedance, etc.
• Timing Parameters: Including data setup time, hold time, clock skew, etc.
• Signal Integrity: Such as eye diagram quality, jitter, crosstalk, etc.
• Environmental Requirements: Such as the impact of temperature, humidity, and power supply noise on testing.

Common PCIe Signal Integrity Physical Layer Test Items

Test items include:

• Eye Diagram Test
• Return Loss / Insertion Loss Test
• TDR (Time Domain Reflectometry) Analysis
• Jitter Analysis (Total Jitter, Random Jitter, Deterministic Jitter)
• Channel Compliance Testing
• SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) Analysis
• Signal Swing and De-Emphasis Verification

Commonly Used Test Instruments

The following instruments are typically used for PCIe physical layer signal integrity testing:

• High-Speed Oscilloscopes (Real-Time / Sampling): Used for time-domain analysis, eye diagrams, and jitter testing.
• Vector Network Analyzers (VNA): Used for frequency-domain Insertion Loss and Return Loss measurements.
• Bit Error Rate Testers (BERT): Used for Bit Error Rate (BER), jitter tolerance, and stress testing.
• Pattern Generators / Clock Generators: Used to generate compliant stimulus signals for testing.
• TDR Modules or Reflectometers: Used for impedance continuity testing.

Test Report