Engineers designing and validating the HDMI physical layer of their devices face constant pressure to improve efficiency. Designers need to perform a wide range of compliance tests quickly and reliably, right on their bench. The HDMI 2.1 is known for Fixed Rate Link (FRL) supports up to 4 k at 120 Hz or 8 k at 60 Hz for both compressed and uncompressed video content. The FRL supports only predefined discrete data rates - 3 Gbps, 6 Gbps, 8 Gbps, 10 Gbps, and 12 Gbps on each of its 4 lanes, which means the FRL supports a post encoded link bandwidth of up to 48 Gbps.

Key features

• Conformance to HDMI 2.1 Standards and Compliance Test Specification 2.1 (CTS)
• Simple and easy setup to perform measurements
• The TekExpress based software solution allows to completely automate the execution of all source and sink measurements.
• There is no “external plumbing” such as delay lines, amplifiers or bias tees
• Programmatically change amplitude, bias voltage, and skew with AWG-HD. No need to change the connection or manual intervention between the tests.
• Superior performance across industry. Completes all sink measurements for one data rate in less than 20 minutes.
• Fully integrated with EDID/SCDC emulators
• Statistically based Pass/Fail results, quick results with Pass/Fail notification, and limit margins. Detailed reports including BER error on each lane.
• Provides link training debug capability
• Completely automated pattern calibration software
• Multilane calibration support

Fully automated HDMI 2.1 FRL compliance testing

The sink testing requires a source, capable of generating a wide range of test patterns and the ability to add precise amount of impairment to the output signal. The jitter, tolerance, skew, sensitivity and timing testing with repeatability are critical. For customers who want to reduce test times with the performance to meet the new standard requirements, Tektronix offers a complete test solution for HDMI 2.1 sink testing. The Tektronix sink test provides an end-to-end automated solution with significant reduction in test time. Featuring the performance for the Tektronix AWG70001B and the new AWG-HD test fixture, this solution provides complete automation without adding an external delay lines, amplifiers or bias tees. The TekExpress based software solution completely automates the execution of all sink measurements. Once the set-up is connected, no changes in connection or no manual interventions are required between the tests.

The TekExpress FRL compliance solution provides you the tools to easily run High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) tests under the HDMI 2.1 compliance test specification. It provides a complete and reliable solution for quick testing.

Quick Pass/Fail tests substantiated with results make the TekExpress FRL application the preferred solution for HDMI 2.1 physical layer validation. In-depth analysis is possible with the statistical information about the performed tests.

The TekExpress FRL application performs the link training prior to executing each measurement, to establish a link between the FRL-capable sink device and the Tektronix signal generator. The statistical Pass/Fail criteria are based on whether the sink device meets the Character Error Rate requirement in the specification. The TekExpress FRL application does all these with a single-click and without any manual intervention.

FRL sink measurements