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Overcoming Test Setup Limitations by Applying Model-Based Testing to High-Precision ADCs

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Abstract

Test setup limitations, such as noise and parasitics, increasingly impede repeatable and accurate linearity measurements in high-volume production testing of high-precision data converters. Model-based testing has been shown to reduce the adverse effects of noise [14].

In this work, we present two enhancements of the linear model-based approach: one is a change of the modeling strategy in order to account for measurement errors induced, for example, by parasitics associated with the device contactor, and another is a Design-for-Test feature that significantly improves the model’s ability to reduce the effect of measurement noise on the accuracy of the test outcome.

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Correspondence to Carsten Wegener.

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The authors acknowledge the support by Analog Devices B.V., Limerick, Ireland and Enterprise Ireland under the Strategic Research Grant ST/00/26.

Carsten Wegener has been awarded the academic degree of a “Diplom-Ingenieur” in Electronic Circuits and Systems by the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, in 1997. During a period of two years, 1996 through 1998, he attended the lecture series for the “Vordiplom” in Mathematics at Humboldt-University at Berlin, Germany.

In Spring 1998, he moved permanently to Ireland, where he started to work with the Test Department of Analog Devices B.V. in Limerick. In Autumn of the same year he took up his PhD-studies with Dr M.P. Kennedy in the area of model-based testing of mixed-signal integrated circuits. He has been awarded the PhD degree by the National University of Ireland in December 2003.

He has contributed to numerous conferences, publishing works in areas of nonlinear oscillator dynamics and mixed-signal testing. In Ireland, he has taught MATLAB courses to design and test engineers at Analog Devices B.V., and graduate courses on “Digital Design-for-Test” and “Mixed-signal Test and Testability” at the Department of Microelectronic Engineering, University College Cork.

Michael Peter Kennedy received the B.E. degree in electronics from the National University of Ireland in 1984, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 1987 and 1991, respectively, for his contributions to the study of neural networks and nonlinear dynamics.

He worked as a Design Engineer with Philips Electronics, a Postdoctoral Research Engineer with the Electronics Research Laboratory, UC Berkeley, and as a Professeur Invité with the EPFL, Switzerland. He returned to University College Dublin in 1992 as a College Lecturer in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. He was appointed Professor of Microelectronic Engineering at University College Cork in 2000.

He has published 200 articles in the area of nonlinear circuits and systems and has taught courses on nonlinear dynamics and chaos. His research interests are nonlinear circuits and systems for applications in communications and signal processing. Since 1995 he has been active in research into algorithms for mixed-signal testing. Since 1994, he has led international basic and applied research projects on chaotic communications valued at over USD 2M.

Dr. Kennedy was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1998. He received the Third Millenium Medal from the IEEE in 2000, the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Golden Jubilee Medal, and the inaugural Parson’s Award for excellence in Engineering Sciences from the Royal Irish Academy in 2001.

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Wegener, C., Kennedy, M.P. Overcoming Test Setup Limitations by Applying Model-Based Testing to High-Precision ADCs. J Electron Test 21, 299–310 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-005-6359-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-005-6359-3

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