Optical communication channel test using BIST approaches

Novel Built-In Self-Test (BIST) approaches for integrated optoelectronic systems are presented The methods are compatible with scan chain design and allow testing the internal functionality of the device, the interconnection between modules, the analog characteristics of the transmitters and receivers and the Bit Error Rate (BER) of the channels. The proposed approaches enable system evaluation under realistic operating conditions (including crosstalk degradation) through BER testing. They can speedup both circuit-level and system-level testing by providing means for accessing different parts of the circuit easily and allowing time-consuming performance tests to be run in parallel with boundary-scan tests. Some preliminary experimental results are presented to confirm the proposed approaches for analog and mixed-signal methods.