Mixed-signal SoC testing: is mixed-signal design-for-test on its way?

Abstract

The world market for electronic systems will reach $1 Trillion within a year and with further exponential growth over the next five years. The growth in areas such as telecommunications has increased the demand for creating single chip solutions to system. This has been achieved by integrating a number of complex sub-systems, including standard interface blocks (e.g., analog/digital converters), reused design cores (e.g., memory or microprocessors), embedded software, and new, innovative, custom designed “user blocks”, into a single chip. Today, system-on-a-chip (SoC) has become a reality. However, the complexity of SoC makes it very difficult to achieve the desire test coverage without affecting the design schedule.