Testing Problems in Analogue Ic

Testing of analogue circuits and mixed-mode circuits has recently gained much attention in the literature. The subject covers testing of many different classes of circuits such as A/D and D/A converters, PLLs, amplifiers, TV circuits, telecommunication circuits and many others. Analogue testing is carried out in order to ensure that the circuit performs as expected both in functional terms and in terms of such quantitative parameters as bandwidth, gain factor or transfer curves. In this paper we briefly review some of the hot problems in analogue testing. In Section 2 of this paper we shortly discuss the implications on the style of testing. Another important problem, which does not have any general solution yet, concerns generation of analogue tests. In Section 3 we discuss how analogue testing differs from digital testing and why digital testing methodology cannot be implanted to the analogue ground. Section 4 highlights some problems concerning analogue BIST in VLSI design. An example of testing strategy of a complex, analogueonly system is presented in Section 5.