Metallic Ratio Equivalent-Time Sampling and Application to TDC Linearity Calibration

In LSI testing, equivalent time sampling techniques are frequently used because the input signals to the device under test and the sampling clock are controllable; when repetitive input signals are applied to the analog device under test, its output signals can be also repetitive. In this paper, we investigate an efficient waveform acquisition method with equivalent-sampling using the metallic ratio of the sampling frequency and the input frequency, which is expected to be used for on-line, short-time and simple analog/RF/mixed-signal IC testing. We reveal that metallic sampling technique can be a powerful tool for the TDC linearity calibration with the histogram method.