Testing of Analog Integrated Circuits

The broad aim of an integrated circuit (IC) designer working on a specific product is to provide certain functionality at minimum cost. In practice this translates into many specific goals. Some of these goals, as, for example, the optimization of certain performance measures or the minimization of chip area, are well supported by computer tools for simulation and layout. Others, such as the design of manufacturable circuits, i.e., circuits whose performance is insensitive to the unavoidable fluctuations in the manufacturing process, are supported to some extent—and increasingly so in recent years—by computational methods and computer aids (see [1] for a good review). In all these instances, the state-of-the-art of computer tools is more advanced for digital design than for analog design. This is primarily due to the fact that digital circuits are more structured than analog circuits. In the digital world, the main problem that has to be addressed is one of managing the scale and the size of the design, while in the analog world the issues are often complex and competing, and of a detailed electrical nature.