With recent strides in integrated circuit (IC) technology, system-on-chip (Soc) devices are adopted everywhere. A typical mixed-signal system contains a microprocessor, embedded memory, analog module and other functional modules. With such complexity on board, these devices need a large number of testing resources, including digital, analog and radio frequency (RF) channels. In the semiconductor industry, the common testing system for mixed-signal SoCs is mixed-signal ATE or RF ATE (which includes an RF signal generator and measurement). However, such systems are very expensive and increase the testing costs considerably. Some research shows that using RF ATE, test cost accounts for up to 30% of the total cost, therefore, using low-cost ATE would be preferable, if a comparable testing ability could be achieved.
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