Built-in Fault Diagnosis for Tunable Analog Systems Using an Ensemble Method

This paper presents a new low-cost fault diagnosis technique based on built-in self test (BIST). The method enables rapid and accurate identification of weak spots in a design and potential problems in the manufacturing process, thereby leading to a significant reduction in time-to-market. Fault diagnosis is accelerated with available on-chip BIST which can generate low-cost signatures (performance parameters). Imperfect signatures due to limited on-chip resources and accuracy are compensated in two ways. Supplemental signatures are obtained from a re-configured device under test (DUT) by parameter tuning, leading to improvements in diagnosability. Secondly, diagnosis accuracy is significantly improved by using an ensemble method which has been widely used in data mining. The technique can be used to identify single as well as multiple faults, and can also be used to facilitate a self-repair mechanism by accurately identifying the source of errors. Simulation results are presented to validate the technique