Identifying noise couplings in integrated circuit
AssigneeFreescale Semiconductor, Inc.
InventorsSriram Gupta, Neeraj Jain, Mohit Khajuria
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Abstract
A method for determining the sensitivity of an analog output node of a mixed-signal module on a system on a chip (SoC) to noise coupling on the analog input nodes of the mixed-signal module includes (i) selecting an IP block for testing, (ii) selecting the output node, (iii) compiling a list of input nodes for testing, (iv) for each input node of the list, providing excitation signals at different frequencies, (v) for each provided excitation signal, determining the output node's noise sensitivity, and (vi) if any individual and/or cumulative noise sensitivity result exceeds a preset threshold, then modifying the SoC design to take corrective action.
Claims20
A method for testing an integrated circuit (IC) design with an electronic design automation (EDA) tool, the EDA tool including a processor coupled to a memory in which the IC design is stored, wherein the IC design includes one or more IP blocks that include one or more mixed-signal modules, the method comprising:
- (a) selecting an IP block for testing;
- (b) selecting an analog output node of the IP block for the testing;
- (c) establishing a set of one or more input nodes for the testing;
- (d) for each input node of the set, providing a plurality of excitation signals, wherein at least two excitation signals of the plurality have different frequencies;
- and
- (e) for each provided excitation signal, using the EDA tool to determine the output node's noise sensitivity.
A machine-readable medium, having encoded thereon program code, wherein, when the program code is executed by a machine, the machine implements a method for testing for noise coupling between I/O nodes, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) selecting an IP block of an integrated circuit (IC) for testing;
- (b) selecting an output node of the IP block for the testing;
- (c) establishing a set of one or more input nodes for the testing;
- (d) for each input node of the set, providing a plurality of excitation signals, wherein at least two excitation signals of the plurality have different frequencies;
- and
- (e) for each provided excitation signal, determining the output node's noise sensitivity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.