In December 2016, the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) announced the release of Bluetooth 5, designed to meet the needs of an evolving industry that demands a global wireless standard to provide simple and secure connectivity. This latest version of Bluetooth focuses on new communication technologies to implement longer-range communications at faster speeds, while maintaining low power consumption to support smartphones and IoT applications. And with this comes the requirement for measurement solutions that support these new specifications.
These new options for the MT8852B support the full range of PHY layer RF tests required by the new Bluetooth 5 specifications for designing and manufacturing Bluetooth devices and SoCs, especially 2LE (2 Mbps Low Energy) PHY tests, which improve battery life, and for Bluetooth Long Range (BLR), which extends communications by several hundred meters.
Although the MT8852B has supported the previous Bluetooth Low Energy specification, this update adds new measurement options for the 2LE and BLR specifications. The MT8852B implements 2LE and BLR measurements via direct connection and can control the device under test (DUT) through either USB, 2-wire RS-232 HCI DTM test mode, or USB-to-serial conversion adapter interfaces.
