General-Purpose IEEE 1149.4 Analog Test Access IC Debuts

Jointly developed by LogicVision and National Semiconductor and said to represent an industry first, this general-purpose, IEEE 1149.4-compliant integrated circuit (IC) has been developed to provide analog access to board-level circuit nodes. The steadily increasing complexity of ICs and density of pc boards has limited test access and fault detection. Digital portions of the boards use IEEE 1149.1 boundary scan technology to deal with this problem. However, in order to access analog test points, an external in-circuit tester (ICT) is required and the board layout and shielding must accommodate external probing. The IEEE 1149.4 mixed-signal test standard has been developed to address these problems. Using LogicVision's embedded test circuitry, the new Analog Test Access chip is expected to help accelerate acceptance of the IEEE 1149.4 mixed-signal test standard. Sample quantities of the chip are available now.