A test technique and a BIST circuit to detect catastrophic faults in RF Mixers

A test technique and a Built-In Self-Test (BIST) circuit to detect catastrophic faults in RF Mixers is presented in this paper. During test application the Mixer is set to operate in homodyne mode and the DC levels generated at its outputs are used as test observables. These test observables are converted to digital signatures, by a simple embedded circuit, and are used to discriminate fault free from faulty Mixers. The proposed technique has been applied to a typical differential RF Mixer designed in a 0.18μm CMOS technology. Simulation results validated its efficiency to provide a high coverage of catastrophic faults which exceeds 90%.