Verification And The IoT


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss what impact the IoT will have on the design cycle, with Christopher Lawless, director of external customer acceleration in [getentity id="22846" e_name="Intel"]'s Software Services Group; David Lacey, design and verification technologist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Jim Hogan, managing partner at Vista Ventures; Frank Schirrmeister, senior group d... » read more

Time For Massively Parallel Testing


Time is money in electronics, as in other industries, and the more time that is invested in testing chips means more costs being added to the product in question. To speed up testing for memory devices and other semiconductors, test equipment vendors have resorted to parallel testing technology, simultaneously testing multiple chips at a time. The industry also is turning to system-level tes... » read more

2017: Tool And Methodology Shifts


As the markets for semiconductor products evolve, so do the tools that enable automation, optimization and verification. While tools rarely go away, they do bend like plants toward light. Today, it is no longer the mobile phone industry that is defining the direction, but automotive and the Internet of Things (IoT). Both of these markets have very different requirements and each creates their o... » read more

Analog Fault Simulation Challenges And Solutions


The test time for digital circuit blocks in ICs has greatly decreased in the last 20 years, thanks to scan-based design-for-test (DFT), automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) tools, and scan compression. These technologies have greatly reduced the number of test vectors applied by automatic test equipment (ATE) while maximizing the coverage of a wide range of defect types. But for analog c... » read more

Putting Design Back Into DFT


Test always has been a delicate balance between cost and quality, but there are several changes happening in the industry that might cause a significant alteration in strategy. Part one of this two part series about [getkc id="47" comment="Design for Test (DFT)"] looked at changes in areas such as automotive, where built in self-test is becoming a mandated part of the design process. This co... » read more

Gaps Emerge In Test Flows


Gaps are showing up in test flows as chipmakers add more analog content and push into more safety-critical applications, exposing more points at which designs need to be tested as well as weaknesses in current tools and methodologies. The cornerstone of the [getkc id="76" kc_name="IoT"], and connected devices such as self-driving cars, is a heavy reliance on [getkc id="187" kc_name="sensors"... » read more

New Drivers For Test


Mention Design for Test (DFT) and scan chains come to mind, but there is much more to it than that—and the rules of the game are changing. New application areas such as automotive may breathe new life into built-in self-test (BIST) solutions, which could also be used for manufacturing test. So could DFT as we know it be a thing of the past? Or will it continue to have a role to play? Te... » read more

Accelerating Design-For-Test Pattern Simulation


The Veloce DFT App presents a true “left shift” improvement for a traditional chip design schedule that requires comprehensive gate-level simulations to develop ATPG, BIST, or functional patterns. It enables running complete patterns for DFT verification in a reasonable time to shorten the pattern development cycle. The Veloce DFT App fits seamlessly into the Veloce ecosystem, enabling a ho... » read more

Gate-Level Simulation Methodology


The increase in design sizes and the complexity of timing checks at 40nm technology nodes and below is responsible for longer run times, high memory requirements, and the need for a growing set of gate-level simulation (GLS) applications including design for test (DFT) and low- power considerations. As a result, in order to complete the verification requirements on time, it becomes extr... » read more

SoC Connectivity Verification Nightmare


At the recent 2015 women’s World Cup soccer final in Canada, Japan was completely caught off guard in the first 15 minutes (and 4 seconds) by the USA. They were wary of the “set-piece” play by the USA team, which they were not able to defend against, resulting in the first three goals by the American women. However, the game breaker was the 54-foot midfield hat-trick goal from Carli Lloyd... » read more

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