Built-in Harmonic Prediction Scheme for Embedded Segmented-Data-Converters

Increase in manufacturing test cost is of paramount issue to chip suppliers, which has been primarily due to costly external testers and long test-time. This paper proposes a loopback-based self-test technique to cost-effectively predict the dynamic nonlinearities of on-chip segmented digital-to-analog-converter (DAC) and analog-to-digital-converter (ADC), by externally looping a DAC back to an ADC, through an external load board employing two parallel paths: a programmable-gain-amplifier (PGA) path and a bypass path for test purpose. A segmented DAC (or ADC) consists of coarse and fine DACs (or ADCs). Two loopback tests are sequentially performed. For the first loopback test, a clean and single-tone sinusoidal signal is applied to a coarse DAC, and it bypasses a fine DAC for test purpose. The obtained DAC output is then fed to a coarse ADC through a bypass path on the load board. Simultaneously, the DAC output is applied to a fine ADC through a PGA path, so that the DAC output signal can fit into the input full-scale range of the fine ADC. For the second loopback test, a sinusoid is fed to a fine DAC, and it bypasses a coarse DAC in this time. Similarly, the DAC output is then applied to a fine and a coarse ADCs through two paths on the load board, at the same time. For postprocessing in on-chip processor, the correlation equations between the dynamic nonlinearities of sub-DACs/ADCs and the aforementioned loopback responses are simultaneously solved to predict the dynamic nonlinearity for each of a DAC and an ADC. Simulation and hardware measurements verified that the proposed technique can be practically used for production testing, by showing less than 0.28-dB and 0.55-dB of the prediction errors, respectively.