Applying Latest Advances in Switch Silicon and Packaging Enables Design Improvements in Testability and Reconfiguration

Today’s latest mixed signal designs continue to grow in complexity as well as shrinking in physical size. Where once test-points could be located at strategic points throughout the design, today the spacing between the components and the critical nature of layout concerns no longer will support that approach. The increase in complexity requires circuit partitioning for adequate testing. Recent advances in packaging and process development, as well as extended characterization of the analog characteristics in the latest generation of analog switch products, bring many advantages to solving these design problems. These desirable improvements include: wide operating voltage range, very low power of operation, rail to rail signal handling, wide bandwidth, low on resistance, fast enable and disable times, and very small package sizes. These improved characteristics simplify the design process by minimizing the effects that inserting a switch will have in the functionality of the circuit being modified.