On-Chip Self-Calibration of RF Circuits Using Specification-Driven Built-In Self Test (S-BIST)

  • Authors:

  • Donghoon Han;Selim Sermet Akbay;S. Bhattacharya;A. Chatterjee;William R. Eisenstadt

  • Affiliations:

  • Georgia Institute of Technology;Georgia Institute of Technology;Georgia Institute of Technology;Georgia Institute of Technology;University of Florida

  • Venue:
  • IOLTS '05 Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International On-Line Testing Symposium
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

In the nanometer design regime, analog and RF circuits are expected to be increasingly susceptible to process, noise and thermal variations. Shifting threshold voltages on the NMOS and PMOS devices of a mixer, LNA or power amplifier, for example, can affect the design specifications of such circuits (such as gain). Thermal variations can affect carrier mobilities of NMOS and PMOS devices differently, further affecting circuit performance. To solve these problems, a new self-calibration approach driven by a Specification-driven Built-In Self-Test procedure (S-BIST) is proposed. This S-BIST procedure uses alternate specification test techniques to predict the performance specifications of the circuit-under-test from the S-BIST response. The results of the S-BIST procedure are used to change the operating point of the circuit to maximally compensate the analog/RF circuit for loss of performance. The proposed S-BIST approach has been applied to a 2.4GHz low noise amplifier and performs well in the presence of temperature and process variations.