A design for test proposal for improving dynamic current testing reliability on regenerative sense amplifiers

Abstract

A design for test method for improving dynamic supply current testing reliability on regenerative sense amplifier structures is described in this paper. This proposal uses a built-in current monitor to represent the supply current through the regenerative sense amplifier by a digital signature, externally analyzed by a digital tester. A fully differential fast comparator circuit has been used as a demonstrator to explore the effectiveness of the proposal. Different catastrophic faults at transistor level were considered and simulation results are discussed.