A tutorial introduction to research on analog and mixed-signal circuit testing

TLDR

Analog testing has traditionally focused on fault diagnosis, but rising integration levels now make distinguishing faulty from functional circuits in mixed‑signal blocks a challenge, prompting many recent studies to propose techniques that reduce testing burden. This survey outlines recent work on analog and mixed‑signal circuit testing, covering simulation‑based test set development, optimization, and built‑in self‑test (BIST) techniques. It reviews methods that use simulation tools to generate and optimize test sets, and examines BIST architectures designed for analog and mixed‑signal circuits.

Abstract

Traditionally, work on analog testing has focused on diagnosing faults in board designs. Recently, with increasing levels of integration, not just diagnosing faults, but distinguishing between faulty and good circuits has become a problem. Analog blocks embedded in digital systems may not easily be separately testable. Consequently, many papers have been recently written proposing techniques to reduce the burden of testing analog and mined-signal circuits. This survey attempts to outline some of this recent work, ranging from tools for simulation-based test set development and optimization to built-in self-test (BIST) circuitry.