Automatic test stimulus generation for accurate diagnosis of RF systems using transient response signatures

Low cost diagnosis of RF systems has become an important problem due to increased process variability effects on the performance of RF devices and the need to ramp-up RF IC yield rapidly. In the recent past, there has been work on diagnosing RF device model parameters from random “frequency-rich” test stimulus. In this paper, we develop a novel test stimulus generation approach which produces a compact, deterministic test stimulus in such a way that the RF DUT model parameters can be computed directly from the DUT response (called the DUT signature). This is achieved through use of a non-linear solver that adjusts the DUT model parameters iteratively until the model response to the applied test matches the observed DUT test response signature. It is shown that a small set of optimized tones in the frequency domain or an optimized transient waveform in the time domain can be used as test stimulus. It is shown how the use of embedded sensors in the RF design can expedite model parameter diagnosis. The practicality and accuracy of the proposed diagnosis approach is shown through simulations and hardware measurements.