Tunable Cellular Desensitization using SD Card Data Transfer

Platform desensitization is a mechanism whereby RF interference from components on a platform (e.g. CPU, display, clock signals, etc.) cause interference with an embedded radio. A receiver may show acceptable performance in a conducted test, but as soon as the antenna is attached, interfering signals enter through the antenna, degrading the performance. Often this interference is narrow band, making diagnostic testing difficult. For some time now, the industry has been looking for a test artifact with known desense characteristics to evaluate different test systems for desense testing. This paper demonstrates a method for producing a repeatable and tunable desense interference in various cell phones using data transfer from an SD memory card.