Review Article

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

Table 1

Comparison between ICs systems and MEMS.

Testing approachIntegrated digital devicesAnalog mixed signal devicesMicroelectromechanical systems

Fault modelAssertion, gate delay, line delay, redundant, path delay, behavioral, branch, bus, cross-point, stuck-open, stuck-at, stuck-on, bridging, and so forth.Hierarchical, behavioral, macro model, transistor, physical, catastrophic, and parametric faults and so forth.Behavioral, shorts and opens in electrothermal and electromagnetic, structural defect level, parametric, functional, fatigue, and reliability model.

Test techniqueVHDL, HSPICE, fault dictionary, probabilistic, signature analysis method, LFSR (linear feedback shift register), BIST (built in self-test), and so forth.Pole-Zero Analysis, artificial neural network, HSPICE, SABER, VHDL-AMS, ATPG, diagnosis of soft faults based on fractional correlation, BIST (built in self-test), and so forth. Neural network, VHDL-AMS, device-level (FEM) and HDLs and transposition of techniques developed for microelectronics, BIST (built in self-test).