Built-In test of MEMS capacitive accelerometers for field failures and aging degradation.

Postprint (published version

A Review on Key Issues and Challenges in Devices Level MEMS Testing

The present review provides information relevant to issues and challenges in MEMS testing techniques that are implemented to analyze the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) behavior for specific application and operating conditions. MEMS devices are more complex and extremely diverse due to the immersion of multidomains. Their failure modes are distinctive under different circumstances. Therefore, testing of these systems at device level as well as at mass production level, that is, parallel testing, is becoming very challenging as compared to the IC test, because MEMS respond to electrical, physical, chemical, and optical stimuli. Currently, test systems developed for MEMS devices have to be customized due to their nondeterministic behavior and complexity. The accurate measurement of test systems for MEMS is difficult to quantify in the production phase. The complexity of the device to be tested required maturity in the test technique which increases the cost of test development; this practice is directly imposed on the device cost. This factor causes a delay in time-to-market

A Review on Key Issues and Challenges in Devices Level MEMS Testing

The present review provides information relevant to issues and challenges in MEMS testing techniques that are implemented to analyze the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) behavior for specific application and operating conditions. MEMS devices are more complex and extremely diverse due to the immersion of multidomains. Their failure modes are distinctive under different circumstances. Therefore, testing of these systems at device level as well as at mass production level, that is, parallel testing, is becoming very challenging as compared to the IC test, because MEMS respond to electrical, physical, chemical, and optical stimuli. Currently, test systems developed for MEMS devices have to be customized due to their nondeterministic behavior and complexity. The accurate measurement of test systems for MEMS is difficult to quantify in the production phase. The complexity of the device to be tested required maturity in the test technique which increases the cost of test development; this practice is directly imposed on the device cost. This factor causes a delay in time-to-market

Analog System-on-a-Chip with Application to Biosensors

This dissertation facilitates the design and fabrication of analog systems-on-a-chip (SoCs). In this work an analog SoC is developed with application to organic fluid analysis. The device contains a built-in self-test method for performing on-chip analysis of analog macros. The analog system-on-a-chip developed in this dissertation can be used to evaluate the properties of fluids for medical diagnoses. The research herein described covers the development of: analog SoC models, an improved set of chemical sensor arrays, a self-contained system-on-a-chip for the determination of fluid properties, and a method of performing on-chip testing of analog SoC sub-blocks

A NOVEL AUTOMATED MODEL GENERATION ALGORITHM FOR HIGH LEVEL FAULT MODELING OF ANALOG CIRCUITS

gh level modelling techniques have been used by researchers from few decades to increase fault simulation speed of analog circuits. However, due to manual model generation, the techniques are tedious and time consuming and unable to reduce analog testing time. To overcome manual modelling limitation, researchers adopt algorithmic support and start using automated model generation (AMG) methods to generate models for high level modelling of analog circuits. AMG models successfully perform HLFM but unfortunately fail to increase high level fault simulation (HLFS) speed compared to full SPICE-circuit simulations. The failure is mainly occurred due to the consumption of multiple models and computational overhead of model switching required capturing nonlinear effects

Entwurf und Implementierung von digitalen Fehlerkorrekturverfahren für Mixed-Signal-Frontend-Schaltungen

Various non-ideal effects as well as environmental influences can affect the transfer characteristics of analog microelectronic circuits. In order to reduce the consequences of these effects, additional circuitry or different compensation techniques are usually used. Unfortunately, most of these methods have several drawbacks. They significantly increase the design time and costs of the circuit and lead to a higher consumption of energy and chip area. For this reason, an innovative method of error detection and correction is developed in this work, which is based on digital calibration and particularly well suited for the application in mixed-signal systems. With this approach, the error correction is no longer performed by complex, analog compensation techniques but by additional digital signal processing. First of all, a suitable test signal is fed into the analog circuit to make different errors visible. Subsequently, the test signal is evaluated in the digital part of the system by adaptive filters and appropriate algorithms to determine the kind and size of present errors. This information is used afterwards to eliminate any errors from the test and the useful signal. With this procedure, the disadvantages of analog compensation methods are removed with only a low overhead on digital circuitry. Furthermore, it is not only possible to correct static as well as time-variant errors but the circuit also gains the ability to monitor itself. As a result, the whole system becomes more reliable and robust. In order to demonstrate the performance of the introduced approach, it is used to correct different gain- and offset-errors in a generic sensor interface circuit. For this purpose, a simulation-based and a practical verification are performed to analyze various application and error cases. While a simulation model of the interface-circuit is used for the first task, a printed circuit board with electronic components is used for the second one. With both forms of verification, the successful application of the developed method can be shown

Cellular Automata

Modelling and simulation are disciplines of major importance for science and engineering. There is no science without models, and simulation has nowadays become a very useful tool, sometimes unavoidable, for development of both science and engineering. The main attractive feature of cellular automata is that, in spite of their conceptual simplicity which allows an easiness of implementation for computer simulation, as a detailed and complete mathematical analysis in principle, they are able to exhibit a wide variety of amazingly complex behaviour. This feature of cellular automata has attracted the researchers' attention from a wide variety of divergent fields of the exact disciplines of science and engineering, but also of the social sciences, and sometimes beyond. The collective complex behaviour of numerous systems, which emerge from the interaction of a multitude of simple individuals, is being conveniently modelled and simulated with cellular automata for very different purposes. In this book, a number of innovative applications of cellular automata models in the fields of Quantum Computing, Materials Science, Cryptography and Coding, and Robotics and Image Processing are presented

Radar Technology

In this book “Radar Technology”, the chapters are divided into four main topic areas: Topic area 1: “Radar Systems” consists of chapters which treat whole radar systems, environment and target functional chain. Topic area 2: “Radar Applications” shows various applications of radar systems, including meteorological radars, ground penetrating radars and glaciology. Topic area 3: “Radar Functional Chain and Signal Processing” describes several aspects of the radar signal processing. From parameter extraction, target detection over tracking and classification technologies. Topic area 4: “Radar Subsystems and Components” consists of design technology of radar subsystem components like antenna design or waveform design