Testing and Self Calibration of RF Circuit using MEMS Switches

This paper presents testing and self-calibration of RF circuits using MEMS switches to identify process-related defects and out of specification circuits. We have developed a novel multi-tone dither test technique where the test stimulus is generated by modulating the RF carrier signal with a multi-tone signal generated using an Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) with additive white Gaussian noise. This test stimulus is provided as input to the RF circuit and peak-to-average ratio (PAR) is measured at the output. For a faulty circuit, a significant difference is observed in the value of PAR as compared to a fault-free circuit. Simulation is performed for various circuit conditions such as fault-free as well as fault-induced and their corresponding PARs are stored in the look-up table. This testing and self-calibration technique is exhaustive and efficient for present-day communication systems.