MIXED-SIGNAL TEST - TECHNIQUES, APPLICATIONS AND DEMANDS

The increasing importance of next generation test technology to provid e high quality, low cost fault detection methodologies is becoming a b ig issue in the microelectronics industry. For digital ASICs, techniqu es such as I-ddq and built-in-self test are being introduced to supple ment or in some cases replace stuck-at-testing that has been shown to be inadequate for the circuit complexities and quality levels demanded . For analogue and mixed signal ICs, a similar trend is evident. Incre asing circuit complexity, higher performance and the demand for high q uality levels is causing the industry to question currently used funct ional and specification based test programs. In addition, the escalati ng costs of production test equipment capable of measuring high perfor mance device parameters is in many cases becoming a limiting factor. T he authors review the current state-of-the-art in mixed signal and ana logue test technology with particular reference to the consumer electr onics industry. Trends in key issues such as design-for-test, fault si mulation, defect detection, CAD and tester support are discussed and t he possible future role of these techniques is proposed for the next g eneration of single chip analogue and mixed signal test systems.