The new test system ‘Spectro TP’ – which has been qualified by GlobalPlat-form – advances interoperability in the Smart Card market. The all-interface Smart Card Conformance Test Platform will support operators as well as card and chip manufacturers in successfully marketing secure Smart Card solutions and services.
Conformance testing for mobile terminals as a way of avoiding interoperability problems between terminals and cards in the field has been known for a long time. GlobalPlatform now seeks the same for the Smart Card market and has established a compliance program. The new card conformance tester Spectro TP has demonstrated its ability of fully supporting GlobalPlatform's functional requirement in terms of ETSI SWP/HCI test case execution dur-ing the last GlobalPlatform ‘TestFest’ at the end of November. Spectro TP has achieved the GP qualification after its test cases had run successfully against a variety of cards.
Spectro TP is a one-box solution which covers both – contact-based (ISO 7816, SWP/HCI, IC-USB) and contactless (ISO 14443/NFC) communication. The system can be used for execut-ing the regular ETSI, 3GPP, 3GPP2 and GlobalPlatform tests but is also prepared for contact-less and dual-interface card testing.
Another exceptional functionality of Spectro TP is the ability to execute test cases in real-time. This is a feature which is demanded by the market for e.g. running extended protocol tests.
Moreover, network operators, card and chip manufacturers have the need to implement their own test benches and test plans. This request is met by offering a so-called ‘Test Case API’ allowing the user to set up individual test scenarios by programming the hardware directly.
The quality and conformance of the electrical characteristics of the chips have a vital im-pact on Smart Card reliability. Spectro TP’s advanced analog test capabilities allow ad-vanced signal configuration (e.g. for electrical parameters such as rise and fall times) and enable accurate measurement of voltage, current and capacity. To prove and to keep Spec-tro TP’s high-precision measurement characteristics, the tool comes with a certified cali-bration sheet and can be re-calibrated on a regular basis.
