DETECTOR: Design and test characterization of mixed-signal power cores

This paper presents a new methodology developed to automate test and characterization of mixed-signal cores. The main goal is to establish a connection between the test of mixed mode circuits and the respective design, offering to the designer the means to characterize the designed cores using the same interfaces employed during the simulation: SPICE netlists and waveform viewers involved in the design environment, without the need to turn designers into test experts. The work describes a configurable interface between the computer and the device under test (DUT) that enables the translation of the designer test bench into the characterization lab setup using three levels of configuration: DUT, dedicated printed circuit board interface and test equipment. The control of the platform is performed by proprietary software acting over two different areas: workstation layer (control of the test sequence and hardware involved) and design flow interface (interface with simulation tools). This methodology can contribute to reduce the costs related with the automatic test equipment and also the time devoted to test.