Fault diagnosis in large analogue circuits based on hybrid decomposition

Abstract

Fault location in analogue circuits is treated using a hybrid decomposition technique. The method is based on linear fault diagnosis (FD) equations and node-voltage measurements under the desired current excitations. The circuit is divided into subcircuits using a combination of node and branch decomposition techniques. The consistency of the FD equations using nominal element values and the measured node voltages is checked to locate the faulty subcircuits. Built-in self-test in analogue circuits may also be implemented based on the proposed method and following the given practical tolerance considerations, which overcome the need for a pretest circuit analysis. Demonstrative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed technique.