ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on generic alternative test techniques, such as inferring the outcome of specification-based testing from low-cost measurements, eliminating redundant specification-based tests and applying a reduced set, digital-to-analog converters, phase-locked loops, and radio-frequency circuits. It reviews tools to assess the feasibility of alternative test techniques. The practice for testing the analog and mixed-signal (AMS) functions of Integrated circuits is specification-based testing. Testing the AMS functions of modern systems-on-chip is responsible for the largest fraction of the test cost despite the fact that AMS circuits occupy a much smaller area on the die compared to their digital counterparts. Intense efforts have been made to borrow from the success of the stuck-at fault model and develop an appropriate and comprehensive fault model for AMS circuits that accounts for all fault mechanisms in the manufacturing process. Fault models can be used to evaluate the test escape as a result of replacing specification-based tests with alternative tests.
