In this paper a test set embedding based on accumulator driven by an odd additive constant is presented. The problem is formulated around finding the location of the test pattern in the sequence generated by the accumulator, given a odd constant C and test set T, in terms of linear Diophantine equation of two variables. We show that the search space for finding the best constant corresponding to the shortest length, is greatly reduced. Experimental results show a significant improvement in run time with practically acceptable test length.

abstract: Built-in-Self-Test (BiST) for transmitters is a desirable choice since it eliminates the reliance on expensive instrumentation to do RF signal analysis. Existing on-chip resources, such as power or envelope detectors, or small additional circuitry can be used for BiST purposes. However, due to limited bandwidth, measurement of complex specifications, such as IQ imbalance, is challenging. In this work, a BiST technique to compute transmitter IQ imbalances using measurements out of a self-mixing envelope detector is proposed. Both the linear and non linear parameters of the RF transmitter path are extracted successfully. We first derive an analytical expression for the output signal. Using this expression, we devise test signals to isolate the effects of gain and phase imbalance, DC offsets, time skews and system nonlinearity from other parameters of the system. Once isolated, these parameters are calculated easily with a few mathematical operations. Simulations and hardware measurements show that the technique can provide accurate characterization of IQ imbalances. One of the glaring advantages of this method is that, the impairments are extracted from analyzing the response at baseband frequency and thereby eliminating the need of high frequency ATE (Automated Test Equipment). / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2012

abstract: As integrated technologies are scaling down, there is an increasing trend in the process,voltage and temperature (PVT) variations of highly integrated RF systems. Accounting for these variations during the design phase requires tremendous amount of time for prediction of RF performance and optimizing it accordingly. Thus, there is an increasing gap between the need to relax the RF performance requirements at the design phase for rapid development and the need to provide high performance and low cost RF circuits that function with PVT variations. No matter how care- fully designed, RF integrated circuits (ICs) manufactured with advanced technology nodes necessitate lengthy post-production calibration and test cycles with expensive RF test instruments. Hence design-for-test (DFT) is proposed for low-cost and fast measurement of performance parameters during both post-production and in-eld op- eration. For example, built-in self-test (BIST) is a DFT solution for low-cost on-chip measurement of RF performance parameters. In this dissertation, three aspects of automated test and calibration, including DFT mathematical model, BIST hardware and built-in calibration are covered for RF front-end blocks. First, the theoretical foundation of a post-production test of RF integrated phased array antennas is proposed by developing the mathematical model to measure gain and phase mismatches between antenna elements without any electrical contact. The proposed technique is fast, cost-efficient and uses near-field measurement of radiated power from antennas hence, it requires single test setup, it has easy implementation and it is short in time which makes it viable for industrialized high volume integrated IC production test. Second, a BIST model intended for the characterization of I/Q offset, gain and phase mismatch of IQ transmitters without relying on external equipment is intro- duced. The proposed BIST method is based on on-chip amplitude measurement as in prior works however,here the variations in the BIST circuit do not affect the target parameter estimation accuracy since measurements are designed to be relative. The BIST circuit is implemented in 130nm technology and can be used for post-production and in-field calibration. Third, a programmable low noise amplifier (LNA) is proposed which is adaptable to different application scenarios depending on the specification requirements. Its performance is optimized with regards to required specifications e.g. distance, power consumption, BER, data rate, etc.The statistical modeling is used to capture the correlations among measured performance parameters and calibration modes for fast adaptation. Machine learning technique is used to capture these non-linear correlations and build the probability distribution of a target parameter based on measurement results of the correlated parameters. The proposed concept is demonstrated by embedding built-in tuning knobs in LNA design in 130nm technology. The tuning knobs are carefully designed to provide independent combinations of important per- formance parameters such as gain and linearity. Minimum number of switches are used to provide the desired tuning range without a need for an external analog input. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2018

The technological development is enabling production of increasingly complex electronic systems. All those systems must be verified and tested to guarantee correct behavior. As the complexity grows, testing is becoming one of the most significant factors that contribute to the final product cost. The established low-level methods for hardware testing are not any more sufficient and more work has to be done at abstraction levels higher than the classical gate and register-transfer levels. This thesis reports on one such work that deals in particular with high-level test generation and design for testability techniques. The contribution of this thesis is twofold. First, we investigate the possibilities of generating test vectors at the early stages of the design cycle, starting directly from the behavioral description and with limited knowledge about the final implementation architecture. We have developed for this purpose a novel hierarchical test generation algorithm and demonstrated the usefulness of the generated tests not only for manufacturing test but also for testability analysis. The second part of the thesis concentrates on design for testability. As testing of modern complex electronic systems is a very expensive procedure, special structures for simplifying this process can be inserted into the system during the design phase. We have proposed for this purpose a novel hybrid built-in self-test architecture, which makes use of both pseudorandom and deterministic test patterns, and is appropriate for modern system-on-chip designs. We have also developed methods for optimizing hybrid built-in self-test solutions and demonstrated the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed technique. / <p>Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2002:46.</p>

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A high-level built-in self-test (BIST) synthesis is a process of transforming a behavioral description into a register-transfer level structural description while minimizing BIST overhead. Existing high-level BIST synthesis methods focus on one objective, minimizing either area overhead or test time. Hence, those methods do not render exploration of a large design space, which may result in a local optimum. In this thesis, we present three methods, which aim to address the problem. The first method tries to find a register assignment for each k-test session in a heuristic manner, where k=1,2,…,N and N is the number of modules of the circuit. Therefore, it offers a range of designs with different figures of merit in area and test time. The second method is based on integer linear programming (ILP). The proposed ILP based method performs the three tasks, assignments of registers, interconnections, and BIST registers, concurrently to yield optimal or near-optimal designs. We describe a complete set of ILP formulations for the three tasks. The ILP based method achieves optimal solutions for most circuits in hardware overhead, but it takes long processing time. The third method, the region-wise heuristic method. It partitions a given data flow graph into smaller regions based on control steps and applies the ILP to each region successively to reduce the processing time. To measure the performance of BIST accurately and to demonstrate the practicality of our BIST synthesis method, we implemented a DSP circuit; an 8x8 two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (DCT) processor. We implemented two versions of the algorithm, one with incorporation of our BIST method and the other without BIST, to verify the validity of our simplified cost model to estimate BIST area overhead. The two major parts of the circuit, data path and controller, were synthesized using our high-level BIST synthesis tool. All the circuits are implemented and laid out using an ASIC design flow developed at Virginia Tech. Experimental results show that the three proposed high-level BIST synthesis methods perform better than or comparable to existing BIST synthesis systems. They indeed yield various designs that enable users to trade between area overhead and test time. The region-wise heuristic method reduces the processing time by several orders of magnitude, while the quality of the solution is slightly compromised compared with the ILP-based optimal method. The implementation of DCT circuits demonstrate that our method is applicable to industry size circuits, and the BIST area overhead measured at the layout is close to the estimated one. / Ph. D.

The computational power and algorithms needed to create a cognitive radio are quickly becoming available. There are many advantages to having a radio operated by cognitive engine, and so cognitive radios are likely to become very popular in the future. One of the main difficulties associated with the cognitive radio is ensuring the signal transmitted will follow all FCC rules. The work presented in this thesis provides a methodology to guarantee that all signals will be legal and valid. The first part to achieving this is a practical and easy to use software testing program based on the tabu search algorithm that tests the software off-line. The primary purpose of the software testing program is to find most of the errors, specially structural errors, while the radio is not in use so that it does not affect the performance of the system. The software testing program does not provide a complete assurance that no errors exist, so to supplement this deficit, a built-in self-test (BIST) is employed. The BIST is designed with two parts, one that is embedded into the cognitive engine and one that is placed into the radio's API. These two systems ensure that all signals transmitted by the cognitive radio will follow FCC rules while consuming a minimal amount of computational power. The software testing approach based on the tabu search is shown to be a viable method to test software with improved results over previous methods. Also, the software BIST demonstrated its ability to find errors in the signal production and is dem to only require an insignificant amount of computational power. Overall, the methods presented in this paper provide a complete and practical approach to assure the FCC of the legality of all signals in order to obtain a license for the product. / Master of Science

On chip Built In Self Test (BIST) is a cost-effective test methodology for highly complex VLSI devices like Systems On Chip (SoC). This work deals with cost-effective BIST methods and Test Pattern Generation (TPG) schemes in BIST for fault detection and diagnosis of analog circuits. Fault-based testing is used in analog domain due to the applicable test methods/ techniques being general and cost-effective. We propose a novel test method causing the Device Under Test (DUT) to saturate or get out of saturation to detect a fault with simple detection hardware. The proposed test method is best suited for use of existing building blocks in Systems-on-Chip (SoC) for implementation of an on-chip test signal generator and test response analyzer. Test generation for a fault in analog circuit is a compute intensive task. A good test generator produces a highly compact test set with less computational effort without trading the fault coverage. In this context, three new test generation methods viz., MultiDetect, ExpoTan, and MultiDiag for testing analog circuits are presented in this thesis. Testing of analog blocks based on circuit transfer function makes the proposed ATPG methods as general-purpose methods for all kinds of LTI circuits. The principle of MultiDetect method, (i.e., selecting a test signal for which the output amplitude difference between good and faulty circuits is minimum when compared to other test signals in an initial test set), helps in the generation of high quality compacted test set with less fault simulations. The experimental results show that the testing of LTI circuits using MultiDetect technique for the benchmark circuits achieves the required fault coverage with much shorter testing time. The generated test set with MultiDetect method can effectively detect both soft and hard faults and does not require any precision analog signal sources or signal measurement circuits when implemented as Built In Self Test (BIST). Test generation for a list of faults and test set compaction are two different phases in an ATPG process. To build an efficient ATPG, these two phases need to be combined with a technique such that the generated test set is highly compact and efficient with less fault simulations. In this context, a novel test set selection technique known as ExpoTan for testing Linear Time Invariant (LTI) circuits is also presented in this thesis. The test generation problem is formulated with tan-1( ) and exponential functions for identification of a test signal with maximum fault coverage. Identification of a sinusoid that detects more faults results in an optimized test signal set. Fault diagnosis and fault location in analog circuits are of fundamental importance for design validation and prototype characterization in order to improve yield through design modification. In this context, we propose a procedure viz., MultiDiag for generation of a test set for analog fault diagnosis. The analog test generation methods, viz., Max, Rand, and MultiDetect etc., which are based on sensitivity analysis, may fail at times to identify a test signal for locating a fault; because the search for a test signal using these test generation methods is restricted to the limited test signals set. But, the MultiDiag method definitely identifies a test signal, if one exists, for locating a fault.