A novel scheme for testing radio frequency voltage controlled oscillators

Author

Dermentzoglou, L. ; Tsiatouhas, Yiorgos ; Arapoyanni, Aggeliki

Author_Institution

Dept. of Informatics & Telecommun., Athens Univ., Greece

Volume

2

fYear

2003

fDate

14-17 Dec. 2003

Firstpage

595

Abstract

In this paper, a novel scheme for testing LC-tank CMOS Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs) is presented. The proposed test circuit is capable of detecting soft and hard faults in a percentage that can guarantee safe overall fault coverage. It has been realized that the proposed technique is capable of detecting open and short circuits as well as process variations outside the specified limits in the passive components of the VCO in a percentage that exceeds 93%. The test result is provided by a digital Fail/Pass signal. Simulation results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed circuit, which additionally presents negligible silicon area requirements in the design process.

Keywords

BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; CMOS analogue integrated circuits; integrated circuit testing; radiofrequency oscillators; short-circuit currents; voltage-controlled oscillators; BiCMOS technology; LC-tank CMOS VCO; analog circuit testing; cross-coupled transistor pair; hard faults; open circuits; process variations; radio frequency voltage controlled oscillators; safe overall fault coverage; short circuits; soft faults; testing scheme; Analog circuits; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Circuit faults; Circuit simulation; Circuit testing; Circuit topology; Germanium silicon alloys; Radio frequency; Silicon germanium; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electronics, Circuits and Systems, 2003. ICECS 2003. Proceedings of the 2003 10th IEEE International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8163-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICECS.2003.1301855

Filename

1301855