Tools for contactless testing and simulation of CMOS circuits

Short channel effects in MOSFETs are responsible for time-dependent hot-carrier luminescence, synchronous with the switching transitions in CMOS circuits. We propose an optical non-invasive inspection technique for high-speed signals, based on a high sensitivity solid-state photodetector with sharp time resolution. This tool is able to probe the fast electrical waveforms propagating through ULSI circuits without electrically loading the circuit under test. The measured time resolution of 50 ps allows an equivalent analog bandwidth of about 20 GHz. From the experimental results and the luminescence characterization of single transistors, we propose a SPICE model able to foresee the photoemission in complex ULSI circuits, down to transistor level. The optical testing equipment and the SPICE modeling are valuable tools for simulation, characterization and testing of fast ULSI circuits.     

Thermally Induced Viscous Flow of Borophosphosilicate-Glass Thin Films on Stepped Surfaces,Part 2: Generalized Parameters for ULSI Glass Flow Characterization

New flow parameters termed flow effectiveness andthermal budgetare used for the characterization of the thermal flow of borophosphosilicate glass serving as a premetal dielectric in ULSI circuits. Their practical value is discussed. It is concluded that the approach proposed reduces the cost of measurement, facilitates the interpretation of measured data, works for both furnace and rapid thermal annealing, is applicable to ULSI gap filling as well as glass planarization, and enables one to optimize the annealing temperature for thin films of low-fusible multicomponent glasses.     

Challenges to manufacturing submicron, ultra-large scale integratedcircuits

It is argued that the cost of manufacturing submicron, ultra-large-scale integration (ULSI) integrated circuits (ICs) (which is scaling upward at least in inverse proportion to the downward scaling of device feature sizes) is driven by a parameter budget crisis associated with the technological and complexity limits of IC design and fabrication. This budget crisis is defined for technologies associated with patterning, mechanical control, thermal treatments, particulates and contamination, defects, electrical parameters, and manufacturing, R&D priorities for silicon ULSI are identified and quantified, and the potential impact of some recent research results is discussed. It is pointed out that the R&D agenda to deal with the ULSI manufacturing budget crisis is enormous, and the semiconductor industry cannot perform all of it. Since the time for transferring new developments into production tools and technologies is five to seven years, it is concluded that critical funding decisions need to be made now for ULSI manufacturing science breakthroughs by the turn of the century     

A hierarchical analog test bus framework for testing mixed-signal integrated circuits and printed circuit boards

Progress in analog circuit testing has been hindered by the lack of structured design-for-testability methodologies. With the increasing complexity of analog/mixed-signal circuits, test program development time is now a major obstacle in achieving shorttime-to-market, while production testing cost is a prominent factor in total production cost. TheAnalog Autonomous Test is a structured design-for-testability scheme for analog circuits. Originally developed for testing analog circuits at chip level, AAT extends naturally to cover testing of mixedsignal integrated circuits mounted on printed circuit boards. With the addition of an analog test bus to PCBs, testability for analog components (bothcore circuits andglue circuits) can be improved, in a manner similar to that achieved for digital boards by the IEEE 1149.1 boundary scan scheme. Details on the implementation of thisAnalog Autonomous Test Bus, both at chip level and board level, are presented here. Its limitations and potential applications are also discussed.     

A hierarchical analog test bus framework for testing mixed-signal integrated circuits and printed circuit boards

Progress in analog circuit testing has been hindered by the lack of structured design-for-testability methodologies. With the increasing complexity of analog/mixed-signal circuits, test program development time is now a major obstacle in achieving shorttime-to-market, while production testing cost is a prominent factor in total production cost. TheAnalog Autonomous Test is a structured design-for-testability scheme for analog circuits. Originally developed for testing analog circuits at chip level, AAT extends naturally to cover testing of mixedsignal integrated circuits mounted on printed circuit boards. With the addition of an analog test bus to PCBs, testability for analog components (bothcore circuits andglue circuits) can be improved, in a manner similar to that achieved for digital boards by the IEEE 1149.1 boundary scan scheme. Details on the implementation of thisAnalog Autonomous Test Bus, both at chip level and board level, are presented here. Its limitations and potential applications are also discussed.     

MOS晶体管技术

简要回顾MOS晶体管一些具有代表性的技术进展,分析了其在将来超大规模集成电路(ULSI)应用中的主要限制.从材料以及器件结构两个方向分别阐述了突破现有MOS技术而最有希望被将来ULSI工业所采用的新型晶体管技术.     

Testing of RF mixers with adaptive filters

This work describes a technique for testing RF mixers with digital adaptive filters. RF circuits are widely used on data transmission applications, such as wireless communication, radio and portable phone systems. However, traditional analog testing covers mainly linear circuits, being not suitable to non-linear pieces of hardware like analog mixers. Herein, an adaptive non-linear filter is trained so that it can mimic the behavior of a RF mixer. Then, a test stimulus is simultaneously applied to the filter and the mixer and the outputs of both circuits are compared to check whether the circuit under test is faulty or fault free. A prototype of a mixer was built in order to allow fault injection in the circuit under test. Thus, the detection capability of the proposed technique could be checked in a real life circuit. The preliminary results point to a very promising test technique. The test is very precise, low cost and allows a complete fault coverage with a very small testing time.     

Failure analysis of ULSI circuits using photon emission

A real-time failure analysis technique for ULSI circuits using photon emission is proposed. This technique utilizes a photon detection system combined with a circuit tester. Improved failure detection is achieved because the tester can bias arbitrary blocks in the ULSI chip. Detecting and correct process defects and design errors improves the reliability of the ULSI chip     

Partial Reset Methodology and Experiments for Improving Random-Pattern Testability and BIST of Sequential Circuits

Partial reset has been shown to have significant impact on test generation for sequential circuits in a stored-pattern test application environment. In this paper, we explore the use of partial reset in fault-independent testing and built-in self-test (BIST) of non-scan sequential circuits. We select a subset of flip-flops in the circuit to be resetable to logic one or zero during the application of the test vectors. The resetting is performed with random frequency. The selection of the flip-flops and the reset polarity is based on fault-propagation analysis, which determines the impact of a selected flip-flop on fault propagation from the circuits structure. Application of partial reset as described above yields an average improvement of 15% in fault-coverage for sequential circuits resistant to random pattern testing. To further enhance testability, we also present a methodology for selecting observable test points based on propagation of switching activity. Overall, high fault coverages (about 97%) are obtained for many of the ISCAS89 benchmark circuits. Thus, partial reset BIST provides a low cost alternative for testing sequential circuits when scan design is unacceptable due to area and/or delay constraints. The routing overhead for implementing BIST is seen to be about 6%.     

Impact of anomalous short-channel MOS transistors on VLSI circuit reliability

In VLSI and ULSI circuits, a major reliability concern is that completed, fully functional, in-specification integrated circuits may contain one or more anomalous transistors with substantially closer source-to-drain spacing than the minimum-design-rule devices, and that such transistors will be more susceptible to degradation or failure due to hot-carrier effects, total-dose-radiation effects or other instabilities. A further concern is that such vulnerable transistors will not be detected during conventional electrical testing or during typical high-reliability integrated circuit burn-in procedures such as static or dynamic burn-in at 125°C, since hot carrier effects tend to anneal out at elevated temperatures, as well as having a negative temperature acceleration factor.Experimental studies have shown that fully functional nMOS transistors with shorter-than-normal channel lengths can have many orders of magnitude greater susceptibility to hot-electron-induced threshold voltage shifts, compared to transistors with minimum-design-rule dimensions of 1.2μm. Total-dose radiation tests showed that anomalous n-channel MOS transistors can have orders-of magnitude higher post-total-dose radiation leakage than nominal devices made by the same process.Several possible types of screening techniques that can be considered for detecting integrated circuits containing anomalous transistors are discussed, including a low-dissipation dynamic stress test at room temperature or at −55°C, with parts electrically characterized before and after the stress test. A large change (delta) of certain critical parameters would be used to predict future failure. Quiescent CMOS supply-current testing could also be used to detect the presence of anomalous transistors in some types of integrated circuits.     

高速低压低功耗BiCMOS逻辑电路及工艺技术

介绍了几种高开关速度、低电源电压等级，低功耗的BiCMOS逻辑门电路，并分析了它们的工作原理及其工艺技术情况。结果表明，这些电路的电源电压可达到2．0V以下，而且信号传输延迟较小，有的还实现了全摆幅输出，因而它们可用于便携式电子设备和其它VLSI和ULSI新品等场合。     

Analysis of the effects of scaling on interconnect delay in ULSIcircuits

A model has been developed to assess interconnect delay in ULSI circuits as dimensions are scaled deep into the submicrometer regime. In addition to RC delay, the model includes the effects of current density limitations imposed to prevent electromigration of the interconnect metallurgy. The authors confirm that interconnect delays will contribute significantly to the total circuit delay in future ULSI circuits unless improvements are implemented. However, contrary to previous reports, the authors show that lowering the resistivity of the interconnect will not result in significant improvements in interconnect switching speed. Only by introducing lower dielectric constant interlevel insulators or by improving the electromigration resistance of the interconnect can significant performance enhancements be realized     

一种射频识别卡电路的可测性设计

随着CMOS器件进入深亚微米阶段,集成电路的规模、复杂度以及测试成本都急剧提高,与此同时人们对集成电路的可靠性要求也越来越高。集成电路系统的测试是一个费时而艰巨的过程,必须综合考虑到测试的功能、性能等诸多问题,并能以较低的成本来实现较高质量的测试,因此对超大规模集成电路的测试研究已成为IC设计中不可缺少的一部分。而可测试性设计(DFT)就是通过增加辅助电路来降低电路的测试难度、从而降低其测试成本的一种测试。文章针对一款非接触式射频卡电路,分析了其工作原理和模块组成,研究了其测试电路,通过对输出端口信息的测试,可以清楚地知道内部各模块的功能与性能,达到了验证电路可靠性的目的。     

通用Toffoli可逆门的固定故障测试

可逆电路技术在低功耗芯片和量子通信中广泛使用。目前,大部分学者着重研究可逆电路的合成,对电路的故障测试却很少问津,但是可逆电路的测试在应用中却十分重要。文中构造了一种四输入通用Toffoli门（universal toffoli gate,UTG）用来检测电路故障,这个门可以实现所有基本的布尔逻辑。UTG门可以检测到所...     

Partitioning sequential circuits for pseudoexhaustive testing

In this paper, we present an algorithm for partitioning sequential circuits. This algorithm is based on an analysis of a circuit's primary input cones and fanout values (PIFAN), and it uses a directed acyclic graph to represent the circuit. An invasive approach is employed, which creates logical and physical partitions by automatically inserting reconfigurable test cells and multiplexers. The test cells are used to control and observe multiple partitioning points, while the multiplexers expand the controllability and observability provided by the test cells. The feasibility and efficiency of our algorithm are evaluated by partitioning numerous standard digital circuits, including some large benchmark circuits containing up to 5597 gates. Our algorithm is based upon pseudoexhaustive testing methods where fault simulation is not required for test-pattern generation and grading; hence, engineering design time and cost are further reduced     

Reducing the cost variance in life testing of integrated circuits

The cost of life testing of integrated circuits (ICs) varies statistically. It is desirable to reduce the testing cost variance in order to reduce the chance of paying a testing cost that is much larger than the mean. In this paper, we study two methods for reducing the testing cost variance. The first method uses the technique of weighted sum of objective functions to integrate the objective of minimizing the mean testing cost and the objective of minimizing the testing cost variance. In the second method, the test engineer inspects the progress of life testing iteratively, collects failure information and then estimates the expected remaining testing cost. If this cost is unacceptably large, he replaces the failed ICs by the functioning ones and/or adds extra IC testers     

基于共振隧穿二极管的集成电路研究

RTD基集成电路所具有的超高速、低功耗和自锁存的特性,使其在数字电路、混合信号电路以及光电子系统中有着重要的应用。首先对RTD与化合物半导体HEMT,HBT以及硅CMOS器件的集成工艺进行了介绍。在MOBILE电路及其改进和延伸的基础上,对高速ADC／DAC电路和低功耗的存储器电路进行了具体的分析。最后对RTD基电路面临的主要问题和挑战进行了讨论,提出基于硅基RTD与线性阈值门（LTG）逻辑相结合是未来纳米级超大规模集成电路的最佳发展方向。     

适用于数字电路的通用多块划分算法

本文提出了一个通用数字电路的多块划分的算法。该算法能适用于不同的优化目标函数。我们在基于组迁移算法线模型基础上，在费用函数中引进一个有效的离散罚函数以考虑单元移动的潜在增益，使新算法较原来的Ｆ－Ｍ算法有较大的提高，同时还一定程度上减少了组迁移算法所固的漂移性。     

Signature Testing of Analog and RF Circuits: Algorithms and Methodology

There are mainly two factors responsible for rapidly escalating production test costs of today's RF and high-speed analog circuits: 1) the high cost of high-speed and RF automatic test equipments and 2) long test times required by elaborate performance tests. In this paper, we propose a low-cost signature test methodology for accelerated production testing of analog and RF integrated circuits. As opposed to prior work, the key contribution of this paper is a new test generation algorithm that directly tracks the ability of input test waveforms to predict the test specification values from the observed test response, even in the presence of measurement noise. The response of the device-under-test (DUT) is used as a "signature" from which all of the performance specifications are predicted. The applied test stimulus is optimized in such a way that the error between the measured DUT performances and the predicted DUT performances is minimized. While existing low-cost test approaches have only been applied to low- and medium-frequency analog circuits, the proposed methodology extends low-cost signature testing to RF integrated circuits by incorporating modulation of a baseband test stimulus and subsequent demodulation of the obtained response to obtain the DUT signature. The proposed low-cost solution can be easily built into a load board that can be interfaced to an inexpensive tester     

A 300-MHz 16-b BiCMOS video signal processor

A 300-MHz 16-b full-programmable parallel-pipelined video signal processor ULSI has been developed. With multifunctional arithmetic units to achieve parallel vector processing, and with a phase-locked-loop (PLL) type clock generator to help attain the 300-MHz internal operating speed, this ULSI is able to attain, with only one chip, 30-frame-per-second full-CIF video data coding based on CCITT H.261. Two different types of pass-transistor BinMOS circuits have been developed to help achieve an access time of 3 ns for a 146-kb SRAM and for data buses. Fabricated with a 0.5-μm BiCMOS and triple-layer metallization process technology, the video signal processor ULSI contains 1.27-million transistors in a 16.5×17.0-mm² die area