Table Of ContentANALOG SIGNAL GENERATION
FOR BUILT-IN-SELF-TEST
OF MIXED-SIGNAL
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
THE KLUWER INTERNATIONAL SERIES
IN ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
ANALOG CIRCUITS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING
Consulting Editor
Mohammed Ismail
Ohio State University
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ANALOG SIGNAL GENERATION
FOR BUILT-IN-SELF-TEST
OF MIXED-SIGNAL
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
by
Gordon W. Roberts
MeGili University
Montreal, PQ Canada
Albert K. Lu
PMC-Sierra, Ine.
Burnaby, BC Canada
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberts, Gordon W., 1959-
Analog signal generation for built-in-self-test of mixed-signal
integrated circuits I by Gordon W. Roberts, Albert K. Lu.
p. cm. -- (The Kluwer international series in engineering and
computer science ; voI. 312. Analog circuits and signal processing)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4613-5992-0 ISBN 978-1-4615-2341-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-2341-3
1. Signal generators--Design and construction. 2. Integrated
circuits--Design and construction. 3. Integrated circuits--Testing.
4. Signal processing--Digital techniques. 1. Lu, Albert K., 1969-
II. Title. III. Series: Kluwer international series in
engineering and computer science ; SECS 312. IV. Series: Kluwer
international series in engineering and computer science. Analog
circuits and signal processing.
TK872.S5R63 1965
621.3815'48--dc20 95-989
CIP
Copyright ID 1995 by Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1995
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1995
AH rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical,
photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permis sion of
the publisher, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Printed on acid1ree paper.
5
CONTENTS
PREFACE
VII
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Motivation 1
1.2 Conventional Analog Signal Generation 2
1.3 Digital Signal Generation 5
1.4 Design Constraints 7
2 AN OVERSAMPLING-BASED ANALOG
OSCILLATOR 9
2.1 Motivation 9
2.2 Background Theory 9
2.3 An Area-Efficient Oscillator Circuit 16
2.4 Simulation Results 18
2.5 Experimental Results 21
3 ANALOG MULTI-TONE SIGNAL
GENERATION 33
3.1 Motivation 33
3.2 Addition of Delta-Sigma Modulated Signals 33
3.3 Multi-Tone Circuit Configurations 39
3.4 An Area-Efficient Mu lti-Tone Oscillator 42
3.5 Simulation Results 44
3.6 Experimental Results 47
4 AN OVERSAMPLING-BASED FUNCTION
GENERATOR 53
v
VI ANALOG SIGNAL GENERATION FOR BIST
4.1 Motivation 53
4.2 Primary Building Blocks 53
4.3 An Area-Efficient Function Generator 56
4.4 Simulation Results 61
4.5 Experimental Results 62
5 CONCLUSION 73
5.1 Discussion of Results 73
5.2 Topics of Future Research 74
A DELTA-SIGMA MODULATION 77
A.1 Principles of Single-Bit Delta-Sigma Modulation 77
A.2 A Frequency Domain Perspective: Noise-Shaping 81
B VHDL DESCRIPTION: SINGLE-TONE
OSCILLATOR 87
B.1 The Oscillator 87
C VERILOG DESCRIPTION: SINGLE-TONE
OSCILLATOR 97
C.1 The Oscillator 97
C.2 Oscillator Test Routine 106
D HSPICERECONSTRUCTION PROGRAM 109
D.1 CD2SP.C 109
D.2 Sample HSPICE Input File 115
REFERENCES 117
INDEX 121
PREFACE
In recent years, IC Testing has been acknowledged as an eminent technical
and economic issue. Manufacturers have found that the costs associated with
high-volume production of ICs are strongly affected by the cost of testing. This
is especially true when analog circuits are involved. To counter the high cost
of testing, digital IC designers have invested great effort into the development
of circuits with self-test capability. This strategy, known as Built-In-Self-Test
(BIST), has simplified the testing of digital ICs dramatically. Nonetheless, with
analog circuits the problem is significantly more complex and until recently,
relatively little progress had been made.
In a general sense, the testing problem can be partitioned into two separate sub
tasks. The first task involves the generation of high-precision test stimuli on
chip, while the second consists of processing the output data to determine a pass
or fail condition. This book demonstrates a method by which high-precision,
analog waveforms can be generated on chip, with minimal silicon overhead.
The technique centers around an oversampling-based oscillator which, with the
exception of a continuous-time low-pass filter, is entirely digital. The result
ing implementation is area-efficient, highly resistant to process variations, and
provides precise control over the amplitude, frequency, and phase of the output
sinusoidal signal. Furthermore, multi-tone and piecewise-linear waveforms may
also be generated by slight modification of the single-tone design.
Prototypes ofthe proposed designs have been assembled in Field-Programmable
Gate Array (FPGA) and BiCMOS technologies. The test results have success
fully verified the validity of the proposed concepts, indicating spurious-free
dynamic ranges exceeding 80 dB and 60 dB for the single and multi-tone gen
erators respectively. In a 0.8 I'm BiCMOS process, the single-tone generator
occupies approximately 5346 mil2 of silicon area. In comparison, a similar de
sign implemented using Direct Digital Frequency Synthesis techniques would
require roughly three times this area in addition to a D/ A converter. This com
parison effectively illustrates, the efficiency and compactness of the proposed
design which appears to be well suited to Built-In Self-Test applications where
additional test circuitry is viewed as undesirable overhead.
Vll
viii ANALOG SIGNAL GENERATION FOR BIST
Analog Signal Genemtion For BIST of Mixed-Signal Integmted Circuits is a
concise introduction to a powerful new signal generation technique. This book
is ideal for test engineers, researchers, and circuit designers with an interest in
IC testing methods. The book begins in Chapter 1 with a brief introduction
to the testing problem and a review of conventional signal generation tech
niques. Chapter 2 describes an oversampling-based oscillator capable of gener
ating high-precision analog tones using a combination of digital logic and D/A
conversion. In Chapter 3, the concepts presented in the previous chapter are
extended to multi-tone signal generation. The resulting circuits open the door
to multi-tone testing schemes without introducing a severe hardware penalty.
In Chapter 4, the concepts are extended further to encompass piece-wise linear
waveforms such as square, triangular, and sawtooth waves. Experimental re
sults are presented to verify the ideas in each chapter. Finally, conclusions are
drawn in Chapter 5. For those readers unfamiliar with delta-sigma modulation
techniques, a brief introduction to this subject is provided in the appendix.
The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the contributions and support of
numerous individuals throughout the preparation of this text. Our sincere
appreciation to the staff and students of the Microelectronics and Computer
Systems Laboratory at McGill University for their assistance in the develop
ment of this work. In particular, our thanks to Michael Toner, Georges Akis,
Sunny Shin, Robert Noory, Benoit Veillette, Xavier Haurie, Ted Garanzotis,
Aru Hajjar, Morie Malowany, Eric Masson, Jacek Slaboszewicz, and Charles
Arsenault. We would also like to thank Professor David Johns of the University
of Toronto for his early thoughts and contributions and Lysander Lim for proto
typing the first version of the single-tone oscillator. We are greatly indebted to
the managers and engineers at Northern Telecom and Bell Northern Research
for supporting this research and offering their industrial expertise. A special
thanks to Robert Hum, Phil Wilcox, Laurie Jones, Steve Suntor, Silvana Ro
magnino, and Dave Foster for their involvement. Finally a word of thanks to
our friends and families and especially to Eileen O'Reilly and Jennifer Ng Ain
Kin for their continued support and encouragement.
ANALOG SIGNAL GENERATION
FOR BUILT-IN-SELF-TEST
OF MIXED-SIGNAL
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 MOTIVATION
In today's competitive, global market, high-technology manufacturers have
made every effort to reduce the cost, size, and power consumption of their elec
tronic products. Examples of this trend include notebook PCs, compact disc
players, cellular phones, and the very recent personal digital assistants (e.g.
the Newton by Apple Computer). Traditionally, analog and digital functions
have been performed on separate integrated circuits (ICs), with interconnec
tions taking place at the board-level. However in the last decade, efforts have
been made to implement both analog and digital circuits on the same IC. These
chips, commonly referred to as mixed-signal ASICs (Application-Specific Inte
gmted Circuits), have been estimated to reduce the chip count of a system by
up to 40% [1]. The result is a significant reduction in circuit-board area, system
weight, size, and cost. For this reason, the growing popularity of mixed-signal
ASICs comes as no surprise.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case, this favorable innovation does not come
without a price. While procedures and equipment for testing stand-alone digital
or analog chips are well established, the same cannot be said for mixed-signal
les [1]. Manufacturers have found that the costs associated with high-volume
production of mixed-signal ICs are strongly affected by the cost of testing.
Furthermore, in the majority of cases it is the analog circuitry which dominates
this cost.
To counter the cost of testing, digital IC designers have invested great effort
into the development of circuits with self-test capability. This strategy, known
as Built-In-Self-Test (BIST), has simplified the testing of digital ICs dramati-
1
