A transition based BIST technique for mixed-signal VLSI circuits

Abstract

A new mixed-signal built-in self-test approach that is based upon voltage transitions at the primary output of the analog block under test (ABUT) is presented in this paper. This ABUT output is the pulse response of the ABUT for a rail-to-rail pulse stream. The technique can effectively detect both soft and hard faults and does not require an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) or/and digital-to-analog converter(DAC). This approach also does not require any additional analog circuits to realize the test signal generator and sample circuits. The paper is concluded with an example of the application of the proposed approach for a passive lowpass filter.