Low cost on-line testing of RF circuits

In this work, we extend previous work on the test of analog circuits in order to enable on-line testing of RF circuits. The application of a simple and low cost digitizer (statistical sampler) enables the observation of analog test points in RF circuits. The single bit digital output of the converter is used in order to perform spectral analysis of the RF signals. As the technique does not require reconfiguration of the signal path, neither signal-path degradation nor variable load for the analog circuit is introduced. Furthermore, the same digitizer hardware can be used in order to implement BIST strategies. The paper discusses the application of the statistical sampler to a basic RF signal path in order to implement on-line test strategies. Experimental results are provided in order to illustrate the feasibility of the approach.