Evaluation of low-cost mixed-signal test techniques for circuits with long simulation times

The high cost of mixed-signal circuit testing has sparked a lot of interest for developing alternative low-cost techniques. Although it is rather straightforward to evaluate an alternative test technique in terms of test cost reduction, proving the equivalence between an alternative and the standard test technique in terms of test metrics, before actually deploying the alternative test technique in production, is very challenging. The underlying reason is the prohibitive simulation effort that is required. Existing test metrics evaluation methodologies are efficient only for circuits that can be simulated fast at transistor-level. In this paper, we propose a test metrics evaluation methodology for circuits with long simulation times that is based on a combination of behavioral modeling and statistical blockade. The methodology is demonstrated on a built-in self-test strategy for ΣΔ analog-to-digital converters.