VLSI Test Principles and Architectures: Design for Testability (Systems on Silicon)

This book is a comprehensive guide to new DFT methods that will show the readers how to design a testable and quality product, drive down test cost, improve product quality and yield, and speed up time-to-market and time-to-volume.

· Most up-to-date coverage of design for testability. 
· Coverage of industry practices commonly found in commercial DFT tools but not discussed in other books. 
· Numerous, practical examples in each chapter illustrating basic VLSI test principles and DFT architectures.
· Lecture slides and exercise solutions for all chapters are now available.
· Instructors are also eligible for downloading PPT slide files and MSWORD solutions files from the manual website.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Design for Testability
Chapter 3 - Logic and Fault Simulation 
Chapter 4 - Test Generation 
Chapter 5 - Logic Built-In Self-Test
Chapter 6 - Test Compression
Chapter 7 - Logic Diagnosis
Chapter 8 - Memory Testing and Built-In Self-Test
Chapter 9 - Memory Diagnosis and Built-In Self-Repair
Chapter 10 - Boundary Scan and Core-Based Testing
Chapter 11 - Analog and Mixed-Signal Testing
Chapter 12 - Test Technology Trends in the Nanometer Age

VLSI Test Principles and Architectures: Design for Testability

This paper describes a novel functional Built-in-Self-Test (BIST) method for microprocessors. This technique is based on the fundamental principle that complex chips have embedded functionality that can be used to implement a comprehensive self-test strategy. Functional testing has generally been associated with expensive testers. In order to lower the cost of test, there is a general trend to adopt structural test techniques like scan that enable the use of low cost testers. One of the key advantages of the test method described here is that it enables functional testing of microprocessors on low cost testers. Detailed implementation of this technique, the test generation methodology, the fault grade methodology and silicon results on Intel/sup /spl reg// Pentium/sup /spl reg// 4 and Itanium/spl trade/ family microprocessors are presented.

FRITS - a microprocessor functional BIST method

Modern electronics testing has a legacy of more than 40 years. The introduction of new technologies, especially nanometer technologies with 90nm or smaller geometry, has allowed the semiconductor industry to keep pace with the increased performance-capacity demands from consumers. As a result, semiconductor test costs have been growing steadily and typically amount to 40% of today's overall product cost. 

This book is a comprehensive guide to new VLSI Testing and Design-for-Testability techniques that will allow students, researchers, DFT practitioners, and VLSI designers to master quickly System-on-Chip Test architectures, for test debug and diagnosis of digital, memory, and analog/mixed-signal designs.

KEY FEATURES
* Emphasizes VLSI Test principles and Design for Testability architectures, with numerous illustrations/examples.
* Most up-to-date coverage available, including Fault Tolerance, Low-Power Testing, Defect and Error Tolerance, Network-on-Chip (NOC) Testing, Software-Based Self-Testing, FPGA Testing, MEMS Testing, and System-In-Package (SIP) Testing, which are not yet available in any testing book.
* Covers the entire spectrum of VLSI testing and DFT architectures, from digital and analog, to memory circuits, and fault diagnosis and self-repair from digital to memory circuits.
* Discusses future nanotechnology test trends and challenges facing the nanometer design era; promising nanotechnology test techniques, including Quantum-Dots, Cellular Automata, Carbon-Nanotubes, and Hybrid Semiconductor/Nanowire/Molecular Computing.
* Practical problems at the end of each chapter for students.

System-on-Chip Test Architectures: Nanometer Design for Testability

The programmable cores on SoCs can perform on-chip test generation, measurement, response analysis, and even diagnosis. This software-based approach to self-testing enables at-speed testing and incurs low DFT overhead. We give an overview of the existing embedded software-based self-testing and self-diagnosis methods for core-based SoC designs, and we discuss the challenges to further developing this new testing paradigm.

Embedded software-based self-test for programmable core-based designs

We present a novel test methodology for testing IP cores in SoCs with embedded processor cores. A test program is run on the processor core that generates and delivers test patterns to the target IP cores in the SoC and analyzes the test responses. This provides tremendous flexibility in the type of patterns that can be applied to the IP cores without incurring significant hardware overhead. We use a bus based SoC simulation model to validate our test methodology. The test methodology involves addition of a test wrapper that can be configured for specific test needs. The methodology supports at-speed testing for delay faults and stuck-at testing of IP cores implementing full-scan.

A self-test methodology for IP cores in bus-based programmable SoCs

Crosstalk effects on long interconnects are becoming significant for high-speed circuits. This paper addresses the problem of testing crosstalk-induced faults at on-chip buses in system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs. We propose a method to self-test on-chip buses at-speed, by executing an automatically synthesized program using on-chip processor cores. The test program, executed at system operational speed, can activate and capture the worst-case crosstalk effects on buses and achieve a complete coverage of crosstalk-induced logical and delay faults. This paper discusses the method and the framework for synthesizing such a test program. Based on the bus protocol, the instruction set architecture of an on-chip processor core, and the system specification, the method generates deterministic tests in the form of instruction sequences. The synthesized test program is highly modularized and compact. The experimental results show that, for testing interconnects between a processor core and any other on-chip core, a 3 K-byte program is sufficient to achieve the complete coverage for crosstalk-induced logical and delay faults.

Jing-Reng Huang

Papers

A self-test methodology for IP cores in bus-based programmable SoCs

Embedded-software-based approach to testing crosstalk-induced faults at on-chip buses