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Vlsi Testing

This ppt presents information about various types of tests and testing methods used in making of vlsi chips.

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Dilip Mathuria
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168 views23 pages

Vlsi Testing

This ppt presents information about various types of tests and testing methods used in making of vlsi chips.

Uploaded by

Dilip Mathuria
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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VLSI FAULTS and

TESTING
Yield and Reliability Engineering

Presented by:-
Dilip Mathuria
M.Tech (VLSI)
2016008200
VLSI Realization Process

Customers need
Determine requirements
Write specifications
Design synthesis and Verification
Test development
Fabrication
Manufacturing test
Chips to customer
VLSI Design Cycle
VLSI Chip Yield
A manufacturing defect is a finite chip area with
electrically malfunctioning circuitry caused by errors in
the fabrication process
A chip with no manufacturing defect is called a good
chip
Fraction (or percentage) of good chips produced in a
manufacturing process is called the yield.
Yield is denoted by symbol Y
Why Model Faults
I/O function tests inadequate for manufacturing
(functionality versus component and
interconnection testing)
Real defects (often mechanical) too numerous and
often not analyzable
A fault model identifies targets for testing
A fault model makes analysis possible
Effectiveness measurable by experiments
Defect, Fault, and Error
Defect
A defect is the unintended difference between the implemented
hardware and its intended design.
Defects occur either during manufacture or during the use of
devices.

Fault
A representation of a defect at the abstracted function level.

Error
A wrong output signal produced by a defective system.
An error is caused by a Fault or a design error.
Typical Types of Defects
Extra and missing material
Primarily caused by dust particles on the mask or
wafer surface, or in the processing chemicals
Oxide breakdown
Primarily caused by insufficient oxygen at the interface of
silicon (Si) and silicon dioxide (SiO2), chemical contamination,
and crystal defects
Electromigration
Primarily caused by the transport of metal atoms when a
current flows through the wire
Defect Categories
Defect categories
Random defects, which are independent of designs and
processes
Systematic defects, which depend on designs and
processes used for manufacturing

For example, random defects might be caused by


random particles scattered on a wafer during
manufacturing
Logical Fault Models
Systematic defects might be caused by process
variations, signal integrity, and design integrity issues.
It is possible both random and systematic defects
could happen on a single die

Logical faults
Logical faults represent the physical defects on the
behaviors of the systems
Role of Testing
If you design a product, fabricate, and test it, and it fails the test,
then there must because for the failure.

Test was wrong


The fabrication process was faulty
The design was incorrect
The specification problem

The role of testing is to detect whether something went wrong


and the role of diagnosis is to determine exactly what went wrong.
Correctness and effectiveness of testing is most important for
quality products.
Verification & Test
Verification
Verifies correctness of design
Performed by simulation, hardware emulation, or formal methods
Perform once before manufacturing
Responsible for quality of design

Test
Verifies correctness of manufactured hardware
Two-part process
Test generation: software process executed once during design
Test application: electrical tests applied to hardware
Test application performed on every manufactured device
Responsible for quality of device
Ideal Tests & Real Tests
The problems of ideal tests
Ideal tests detect all defects produced in the manufacturing process
Ideal tests pass all functionally good devices
Very large numbers and varieties of possible defects need to be
tested
Difficult to generate tests for some real defects
Real tests
Based on analyzable fault models, which may not map on real
defects
Incomplete coverage of modeled faults due to high complexity
Some good chips are rejected. The fraction (or percentage) of such
chips is called the yield loss
Some bad chips pass tests. The fraction (or percentage) of bad chips
among all passing chips is called the defect level
Testing Economics
Chips must be tested before they are assembled onto PCBs,
which, in turn, must be tested before they are assembled into
systems.
The rule of ten

If a chip fault is not detected by chip testing, then finding


the fault costs 10 times as much at the PCB level as at the chip
level.
Similarly, if a board fault is not found by PCB testing, then
finding the fault costs 10 times as much at the system level as
at the board level.
Types of Test
Characterization testing
Design debug or verification testing
Performed on a new design before it is sent to production
Verify whether the design is correct and the device will meet
all specifications
Functional tests and comprehensive AC and DC measurements
are made
A characterization test determines the exact limits of device
operation values
DC Parameter tests
Measure steady-state electrical characteristics
For example, threshold test
Types of Test
Production testing
Every fabricated chip is subjected to production tests
The test patterns may not cover all possible functions and
data patterns but must have a high fault coverage of modeled
faults
The main driver is cost, since every device must be tested.
Test time must be absolutely minimized
Only a go/no-go decision is made
Test whether some device-under-test parameters are met to
the device specifications under normal operating conditions
Burn-In testing
Ensure reliability of tested devices by testing
Detect the devices with potential failures
Types of Test
The potential failures can be accelerated at elevated temperatures
The devices with infant mortality failures may be screened out by a
short-term burn-in test in an accelerate

Failure rate versus product lifetime (bathtub curve)


Test Process
The testing problem
Given a set of faults in the circuit under test (or device
under test), how do we obtain a certain (small) number
of test patterns which guarantees a certain (high) fault
coverage?
Test process
What faults to test? (fault modeling)
How are test pattern obtained? (test pattern
generation)
How is test quality (fault coverage) measured?
(fault simulation)?
How are test vectors applied and results evaluated?
Testing & Diagnosis
Testing is a process which includes test
pattern generation, test pattern application, and output
evaluation.
Fault detection tells whether a circuit is
fault-free or not
Fault location provides the location of the
detected fault
Fault diagnosis provides the location and the
type of the detected fault
Fault Simulation
Fault simulation
In general, simulating a circuit in the presence of faults is
known as fault simulation
The main goals of fault simulation
Measuring the effectiveness of the test patterns
Guiding the test pattern generator program
Generating fault dictionaries
Outputs of fault simulation
Fault coverage - fraction (or percentage) of modeled faults
detected by test vectors
Set of undetected faults
Design for Testability
Definition
A fault is testable if there exists a well-specified procedure to
expose it, which is implementable with a reasonable cost using
current technologies. A circuit is testable with respect to a fault
set when each and every fault in this set is testable
Definition
Design for testability (DFT) refers to those design techniques
that make test generation and test application cost-effective
Electronic systems contain three types of components:
(a) digital logic,
(b) memory blocks, and
(c) analog or mixed-signal circuits
Introduction to Built-In Self-Test
Built-in self-test (BIST)
The capability of a circuit (chip/board/system) to test itself
Advantages of BIST
Test patterns generated on-chip -controllability Increased
Test can be on-line (concurrent) or off-line
Test can run at circuit speed, more realistic; shorter test time;
easier delay testing
External test equipment greatly simplified, or even totally
eliminated
Easily adopting to engineering changes
Benefits of Testing
Quality and economy are two major benefits of testing

The two attributes are greatly dependent and can not be defined
without the other

Quality means satisfying the users needs at a minimum cost

The purpose of testing is to weed out all bad products before they
reach the user
The number of bad products heavily affect the price of good
products

A profound understanding of the principles of manufacturing and


test is essential for an engineer to design a quality product
THANK YOU!!!

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