US-Germany Collaboration: Satisfiability-Based Test Generation for Small-Delay Defects in Nanoscale Integrated Circuits

杜克大学和德国不来梅大学的这个合作项目的目标是开发新的技术来检测纳米集成电路(IC)中的小延迟缺陷(SDDS)。杜克大学的S小组开发了一种栅极延迟缺陷概率测量方法，用来模拟纳米技术和测试选择技术的延迟变化，以减少图案数量。不来梅大学的团队对可满足性及其在测试生成中的作用进行了广泛的研究。拟议的合作是基于这样一个前提，即可以开发一个概率和伪布尔SAT框架来生成针对SDDS的测试，并且合作努力将导致比两个小组单独努力更高质量的解决方案。这个种子项目的结果将是对美国的NSF和德国的DFG的后续拨款建议。该项目将对下一代纳米IC的测试产生持久和重大的影响。SAT的理论进步将由筛选SDDS这一棘手的实际问题推动并应用于这一难题。较低的缺陷逃逸将导致更高的出厂产品质量和更低的测试成本。对社会的好处包括：医疗保健的可靠电子系统；安全关键系统的零缺陷IC；服务器、天气预报、气候变化预报、金融交易处理等更便宜、更可靠的计算平台。这项研究产生的创新将用于加强两所大学的现有课程和开发新课程。美国研究人员将从跨文化互动中受益，并学会在当今？S的全球工作场所与外国研究人员合作。

The goal of this collaborative project between Duke University and University of Bremen in Germany is to develop new techniques for detecting small-delay defects (SDDs) in nanoscale integrated circuits (ICs). The PI?s group at Duke University has developed a gate-delay-defect probability measure to model delay variations for nanometer technologies and test-selection techniques to reduce pattern count. The University of Bremen team has carried out extensive research on satisfiability (SAT) and its role in test generation. The proposed collaboration is based on the premise that a probabilistic and pseudo-Boolean SAT framework can be developed for test generation to target SDDs, and the collaborative effort will lead to better-quality solutions than the individual efforts of the two groups. The outcome of this seed project will be a follow-up grant proposal to NSF in the US and DFG in Germany.This project will have a lasting and significant influence on the testing of next-generation nanometer ICs. Theoretical advances in SAT will be driven by and applied to the difficult practical problem of screening SDDs. Lower defect escapes will lead to higher shipped-product quality and lower test cost. Benefits for society include: reliable electronic systems for healthcare; zero-defect ICs for safety-critical systems; cheaper and dependable computing platforms for servers, weather forecasting, climate-change prediction, financial-transaction processing, etc. The innovations resulting from this research will be used to enhance existing courses and develop new courses at both universities. US researchers will benefit from cross-cultural interactions and learn to collaborate with foreign researchers in today?s global workplace.