Hard-Fault Detection and Diagnosis During the Application of Model-Based Data Converter Testing

The concept of model-based test was developed in order to reduce the production test effort for data converters (Cherubal and Chatterjee (IEEE Trans Circuits Syst part I 50(3):317–327, 2003); Stenbakken and Souders (1985) Modelling and test point selection for data converter testing. In: ITC, Int Test Conf, pp 813–817; Wegener and Kennedy (IEEE Trans Circuits Syst I 51(1):213–217, 2004); Wrixon and Kennedy (IEEE Trans Instrum Meas IM-48(5):978–985, 1999)). In applying this concept, a vector of model parameters is determined for each device under test (DUT). Typically, this model parameter vector is merely used to calculate the DUT performance characteristic which is then subject to specification-oriented testing. However, each element of the model parameter vector represents an independent error source which contributes to performance degradations; thus, the model parameter vector can be viewed as a signature of the error sources. In this work, analyzing the error source signature is used to devise a model-based methodology for hard-fault detection and diagnosis. We investigate conditions under which hard-faults are detectable/diagnosable in spite of masking effects due to manufacturing process variations. In particular, we show that taking the model parameter vector as the fault signature is optimal as it minimizes the masking effects and thus maximizes detectability/diagnosibility.

Michael Peter KennedyEmail:

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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. In 2006, Carsten moved to Germany working with Infineon Technologies AG as an Analog Mixed-signal Design-for-Test Engineer on innovative data converter test approaches. He has contributed to numerous conferences, publishing works in areas of nonlinear oscillator dynamics and mixedsignal 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 Invite 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 in 2000 and Vice-President for Research in 2005 at University College Cork. 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.