Analog Integrated Circuit Design and Testing Using the Field Programmable Analog Array Technology

Due to their reliability, performance and rapid prototyping, programmable logic devices overcome the use of ASICs in the digital system design. However, the similar solution for analog signals was not so easy to find. But the evolutionary trend in Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits technologies fuelled by fierce industrial competition to reduce integrated circuits (ICs) cost and time to market has led to design the FieldProgrammable Analog Array (FPAA) which is the analog equivalent of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). In fact, the use of FPAAs reduces the complexity of analog design, decreases the time to market and allows products to be easily updated and improved outside the manufacturing environment. Thus, the reconfigurable feature of FPAAs enables real time updating of analog functions within the system using the Configurable Analog Blocks (CABs) system and appropriate software. In this paper, an interesting analog phase shift detection circuit based on FPAA architecture is presented. In fact, the phase shift detection circuit will distinguish a faulty circuit from a faulty-free one by controlling the phase shift between their corresponding outputs. The system is practically designed and simulated by using the AN221E04 board which is an Anadigm product. The Circuit validation was carried out using the AnadigmDesigner®2 software.