A built-in current monitor for testing analog circuit blocks

Author

Tabatabaei, Sassan ; Ivanov, André

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., British Columbia Univ., Vancouver, BC, Canada

Volume

2

fYear

1999

fDate

36342

Firstpage

109

Abstract

A novel built-in current (BIC) monitor circuit is proposed for supply current (I_DD) measurement and testing of embedded analog circuits. The BIC monitor provides high current measurement sensitivity without introducing a large impedance in the I_DD path. It also includes a current integrator circuit which generates a digital signature proportional to the average I_DD (I¯ _D¯_D¯). The integrator uses only small capacitors (totaling 74 pF), 4 comparators, 14 switches and a counter to perform integration over a long time (1 ms) window and to digitize I¯ _D¯_D¯. The monitor occupies a small area and is suitable for BIST applications on mixed-signal ICs

Keywords

built-in self test; electric current measurement; integrated circuit testing; integrating circuits; mixed analogue-digital integrated circuits; monitoring; BIST applications; analog circuit block testing; built-in current monitor; current integrator circuit; digital signature generation; embedded analog circuits; high current measurement sensitivity; mixed-signal ICs; supply current measurement; Analog circuits; Capacitors; Circuit testing; Current measurement; Current supplies; Digital signatures; Impedance; Integrated circuit measurements; Monitoring; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Circuits and Systems, 1999. ISCAS '99. Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5471-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISCAS.1999.780631

Filename

780631