The role of nano-electronic systems is rapidly expanding in every facet of modern life. To interact with environment and users the Integrated Circuits need analog, mixed-signal, RF or MEMS blocks. These blocks could represent a low part of the chip area but have a major impact on IC Yield and reliability. Indeed, one of the major bottlenecks nowadays for nano-electonics systems is the post-manufacturing testing of their analog, mixed-signal, RF, and MEMS functions, in order to guarantee outgoing quality while not sacrificing yield. Testing such functions is accounting for a large portion of the overall manufacturing cost.

The main reasons include the pressing demand for zero defective parts-per-million, the increasing frequency of operation, the high levels of integration, the limited controllability and observability of embedded blocks, the integration of heterogeneous devices onto the same substrate, the requirement for specialized, high-cost equipment, the new defect mechanisms and excessive process variations occurring in advance technology nodes, the long test times, etc.

In addition to the post-manufacturing testing problem, modern safety-critical, mission-critical, and remote-controlled systems need to be equipped with self-test, concurrent error detection, and fault-tolerance capabilities so as to detect early reliability hazards and guarantee reliable operation even in harsh environments.

For such systems, diagnosing the sources of failures occurring in the field of operation is of vital importance, in order to apply corrective actions and to prevent failure reoccurrence.