Strategies for built-in characterization testing and performance monitoring of analog RF circuits with temperature measurements uri icon

abstract

  • This paper presents two approaches to characterize RF circuits with built-in differential temperature measurements, namely the homodyne and heterodyne methods. Both non-invasive methods are analyzed theoretically and discussed with regard to the respective trade-offs associated with practical off-chip methodologies as well as on-chip measurement scenarios. Strategies are defined to extract the center frequency and 1 dB compression point of a narrow-band LNA operating around 1 GHz. The proposed techniques are experimentally demonstrated using a compact and efficient on-chip temperature sensor for built-in test purposes that has a power consumption of 15 W and a layout area of 0.005 mm 2 in a 0.25 m CMOS technology. Validating results from off-chip interferometer-based temperature measurements and conventional electrical characterization results are compared with the on-chip measurements, showing the capability of the techniques to estimate the center frequency and 1 dB compression point of the LNA with errors of approximately 6% and 0.5 dB, respectively. 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.

published proceedings

  • Measurement Science and Technology

author list (cited authors)

  • Aldrete-Vidrio, E., Mateo, D., Altet, J., Salhi, M. A., Grauby, S., Dilhaire, S., Onabajo, M., & Silva-Martinez, J.

citation count

  • 26

complete list of authors

  • Aldrete-Vidrio, Eduardo||Mateo, Diego||Altet, Josep||Salhi, M Amine||Grauby, Stéphane||Dilhaire, Stefan||Onabajo, Marvin||Silva-Martinez, Jose

publication date

  • July 2010