A Multi-Level Test Approach for Improving Reliability and Performance of Nanometer Technology Designs

电路可靠性、工艺变化和环境变化已经成为先进集成电路设计中需要解决的主要挑战，特别是在汽车、医疗设备、航空航天等关键寿命应用中部署的部件。本项目的目标是开发新的高效测试基础设施、多电平测试方法和方法，以消除浪费的保护带，以提高电路在任何工作负载下的整个生命周期运行的性能和可靠性。其智能优点包括：(1)针对电路中的老化、最小可用松弛、噪声和时序不确定性设计新的测试和测量基础设施；(2)考虑目标路径上不同的噪声/工作负载条件生成测试图形，并选择测试和可靠性分析的目标路径；(3)从制造测试和硅验证、系统调试和现场测试三个不同的层面分析测量数据；(4)分析从先进技术节点制造的SOC设计中收集的数据。该项目将减少设计重复，缩小制造测试与系统测试之间的差距，从而降低制造成本。该项目的结果将缓解调试和诊断问题。由此给社会带来的好处包括：(I)关键应用的更可靠的电子系统；(Ii)更便宜、更可靠的计算平台；(Iii)在汽车、医疗和空间应用领域实现人们梦寐以求的“零缺陷”目标。参与这项研究的学生将为半导体行业的劳动力做准备。

Circuit reliability, process variations, and environmental variations have become major challenges to address in advanced integrated circuit designs, especially for parts deployed in critical-life applications such as automotive, medical devices, aerospace, etc. The goal of this project is to develop novel and efficient test infrastructures, multi-level test approaches, and methods to eliminate wasteful guardband for improving performance and reliability of the circuit throughout its lifetime operation under any workload. The intellectual merits include (1) design of new test and measurement infrastructure while targeting aging, minimum available slack, noise, and timing uncertainties in the circuit, (2) generation of test patterns considering different noise/workload conditions on target paths and selection of paths to be targeted for test and reliability analysis, (3) analyzing the measurement data at three different levels, namely manufacturing test and silicon validation, system bring up, and in-the-field test, and finally (4) analyzing data collected from a SOC design fabricated in an advanced technology node. This project will lead to reduced design re-spin and shrinking gap between manufacturing test and system test, thereby lowering manufacturing cost. The results of this project will alleviate debugging and diagnosis problems. Resulting benefits for society include: (i) more reliable electronic systems for critical applications; (ii) cheaper and more dependable computing platforms; (iii) realization of the much sought-after goal of "zero defects" in the field for automotive, medical, and space applications. Students involved in this research will be prepared for the semiconductor industry workforce.