Design for Testability of CMOS Analog Sum-Product Error-Control Decoders
Mimi Yiu, Chris Winstead, Vincent Gaudet, Christian B. Schlegel · IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II Analog and Digital Signal Processing · 2007
A built-in self-test (BIST) technique is presented for testing analog iterative decoders. Catastrophic circuit faults are detected by temporarily operating the analog soft gates in a digital mode. Self-testing operations are performed in the digital domain, thereby lowering the cost and complexity compared to alternative mixed-signal BIST approaches. A proof-of-concept CMOS integrated circuit realization of the BIST is also presented. BER measurements show that the added circuits do not interfere with the decoder's performance during normal operation.