BIST structure for DAC testing

A built-in self-test (BIST) structure for digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) testing is presented. The basic idea is to divide the input codes (0, 1, ..., 2/sup n/-1) of the DAC under test into a number of segments. The DAC output voltages corresponding to different codes in the same segment are amplified to the same voltage value. Such that one single reference voltage can be used to test all codes in the same segment. By this method, the number of reference voltages required for DAC testing can be greatly reduced. We show that offset error, gain error, integral nonlinearity (INL) and differential nonlinearity (DNL) are effectively detected in the proposed BIST structure.