Low-voltage wide-range built-in current sensing for system-on-chip applications

Vahedi, H.; Mureşan, Radu; Gregori, Stefano

doi:10.1109/mwscas.2005.1594233

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The proposal in [7] uses a current mirror with a compensating circuit and a dynamic control loop to ensure linearity. A sensor load is used for measurements which results in a specific voltage drop.…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If any additional load is introduced in the interconnected layer to provide a sensor, similar to the sensor used in [4], [7], [8], mission mode circuit performance may be affected. Work in [4], [7], [8] do not go into any analysis on the effect of BIST on mission mode performance -an aspect that needs to be covered with the topology used in the proposals. Our proposal has minimal impact on the mission mode CUT topology as no bias current paths are shared or loads introduced, and hence is an improvement over the previous work.…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Calibration-enabled scalable built-in current sensor compatible with very low cost ATE

Dasnurkar

Abraham

2010

2010 15th IEEE European Test Symposium

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Semiconductor testing, aimed at detecting manufacturing defects and marginalities, should be able to screen out fabrication artifacts that affect immediate as well as future mission-mode device performance. While a large amount of resources are dedicated towards catastrophic fault detection, parametric fault detection is an increasingly important research area. Parametric faults marginally affect device performance and may affect functionality in prolonged field use.In this work, Circuit-under-test (CUT) static bias current is monitored in order to identify catastrophic as well as parametric defects. Any active circuit requires a deterministic amount of DC bias current which may vary outside the specifications when faults exist within the circuit. We propose a process-voltagetemperature (PVT) compensated current measurement builtin-self-test (BIST) scheme, which can be used for sub-system level/circuit-level bias current measurements. The BIST scheme provides better accessibility to internal blocks and enables isolated parametric testing. Process independence due to calibration makes it feasible for commercial implementation in Systems on a Chip (SoCs). Our BIST scheme is compatible with very-lowcost automatic test equipment (VLC-ATE), and can be used for detailed parametric testing in the production environment.

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Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibration-enabled scalable built-in current sensor compatible with very low cost ATE

Dasnurkar

Abraham

2010

2010 15th IEEE European Test Symposium

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“…The applications of current sensing extend from fault diagnosing in complex ICs [1, 2] to monitoring current in switching DC -DC converters [3,4], to protecting confidentiality of cryptosystems [5], to testing and analysing the performance of mixed-signal and RF circuits [2]. In many such applications it is desirable to use a non-invasive current-sensing technique, i.e.…”

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confidence: 99%

Monolithic current-sensing topology for system-on-chip applications

Keikhosravy

Mirabbasi

2012

Electron. Lett.

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A passive current-sensing architecture operating based on electromotive force phenomena is presented. The proposed architecture is capable of sensing a varying current over a wide range of frequencies.Simulation and measurement results of a proof-of-concept prototype implemented in a 0.13 mm CMOS confirm the performance of the presented technique for currents with frequencies up to 8 GHz. In the presented experimental results, the high-frequency performance limit is due to the measurement setup. Furthermore, the method can be used to sense currents over a wide range of amplitudes and the amplitude detection sensitivity of the technique improves as the frequency of the current signal being measured increases.Introduction: Sensing current has a wide range of applications in many integrated circuit (IC) and system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The applications of current sensing extend from fault diagnosing in complex ICs [1, 2] to monitoring current in switching DC -DC converters [3,4], to protecting confidentiality of cryptosystems [5], to testing and analysing the performance of mixed-signal and RF circuits [2]. In many such applications it is desirable to use a non-invasive current-sensing technique, i.e. the sensing circuit virtually does not disturb the test circuit current. In particular, many present and emerging applications require a high-bandwidth current sensing circuit. State-of-the-art monolithic current-sensing schemes have bandwidths in the range of a few megahertz up to 3.4 GHz [1 -5]. Although a current-sensing technique that uses exotic material and is based on giant magneto impedance (GMI) effect with bandwidths up to 30 GHz has been previously discussed (refer to [6] for an overview of this and other techniques), such techniques require a relatively large footprint as well as use of exotic materials and are not amenable to implementation in standard CMOS processes. Given that emerging applications are operating at increasingly higher frequencies, having an efficient high-bandwidth current-sensing technique suitable for integration in low-cost CMOS technologies is desirable. In this Letter, a simple electromotive-force-based technique that operates over a wide frequency range and requires a small footprint for non-invasive current-sensing in CMOS ICs and SoCs is presented.

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Calibration Enabled Scalable Current Sensor Module for Quiescent Current Testing

Dasnurkar

Abraham

2012

J Electron Test

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Low-voltage wide-range built-in current sensing for system-on-chip applications

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

Calibration-enabled scalable built-in current sensor compatible with very low cost ATE

Calibration-enabled scalable built-in current sensor compatible with very low cost ATE

Monolithic current-sensing topology for system-on-chip applications

Calibration Enabled Scalable Current Sensor Module for Quiescent Current Testing

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