STRECH: Self testing reliability evaluation chip

An ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) has been designed to evaluate the reliability of a BiCMOS process for mixed signal ASICs using accelerated life test. The ASIC is built by using standard building blocks that can be found in most mixed signal applications. A built-in digital processor monitors an analog triangle wave output from the analog section of the ASIC so that parametric failures as well as catastrophic failures in the analog section can be detected without the use of expensive external testers