In this letter a histogram-based BIST (Built-In Self-Test) approach for deriving the main characteristic parameters of an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) such as offset, gain and non-linearities is proposed. The BIST uses a ramp signal as an input signal and two counters as a response analyzer to calculate the derived static parameters. Experimental results show that the proposed method reduces the hardware overhead and testing time while detecting any static faults in an ADC.
The proposed built-in self-test(BIST) architecture aims at multiple digital-to-analog converters (DACs) in a low temperature poly-silicon(LTPS) based thin-film transistor liquid crystal display(TFT-LCD) source driver IC. DACs play an important role in display driver ICs(DDIs), so the proposed BIST is indispensable for DDIs' testing. The proposed BIST can compute differential non-linearity(DNL), integral nonlinearity(INL) and timing errors using some basic modules. The proposed architecture benefits the hardware overhead and the test application time without the loss of test quality. The validity and the effectiveness of the proposed method are verified through HSPICE simulations with an LTPS process.
Measurement and calibration of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using a histogram-based method requires a large volume of data and a long test duration, especially for a high resolution ADC. A fast and accurate calibration method for pipelined ADCs is proposed in this research. The proposed calibration method composes histograms through the outputs of each stage and calculates error sources. The digitized outputs of a stage are influenced directly by the operation of the prior stage, so the results of the histogram provide the information of errors in the prior stage. The composed histograms reduce the required samples and thus calibration time being implemented by simple modules. For 14-bit resolution pipelined ADC, the measured maximum integral non-linearity (INL) is improved from 6.78 to 0.52 LSB, and the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) and signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) are improved from 67.0 to 106.2dB and from 65.6 to 84.8dB, respectively.
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