Semiconductor Test: Staying Ahead Of Nanodevices


In the semiconductor fabrication process, engineers continue to innovate, enabling smaller transistors and higher density circuits. The transition to finFETs allowed 7nm and 5nm processes to realize circuits of amazing density, and the progress of nanosheet transistors provides confidence in the future advancement of digital circuit cost reduction and performance improvement. As individual t... » read more

Advanced High Throughput e-Beam Inspection With DirectScan


Optical inspection cannot resolve critical defects at advanced nodes and cannot detect subsurface defects. Especially at 7nm and below, many yield and reliability killer defects are the result of interactions between lithography, etch, and fill. These defects often will have part per billion (PPB) level fail rates. Conventional eBeam tools lack the throughput to measure PPB level fail rates. A ... » read more

A Practical Approach To DFT For Large SoCs And AI Architectures, Part I


The traditional processors designed for general-purpose applications struggle to meet the computing demands and power budgets of artificial intelligence (AI) or machine leaning (ML) applications. Several semiconductor design companies are now developing dedicated AI/ML accelerators that are optimized for specific workloads such that they deliver much higher processing capabilities with much low... » read more

High-Quality Test And Embedded Analytics Are Vital For Secure SoCs


Applications like as smart cards and devices used in the defense industry require security to ensure that sensitive data is inaccessible to outside agents. This used to be a niche requirement met through custom solutions. However, now that automotive and cyber-physical systems are proliferating, the requirements around secure test and monitoring are becoming mainstream. The current best strateg... » read more

Speeding Up Scan-Based Volume Diagnosis


In the critical process known as new-product bring-up, it’s a race to get new products to yield as quickly as possible. But the interplay between increasingly complex aspects of designs and process makes it difficult to find root causes of yield issues so they can be fixed quickly. Advanced processes have very high defectivity, and learning must be fast and effective. While progress has be... » read more

Novel Reversible Chain Diagnosis Improves Resolution


Yield ramp for ICs designed on advanced process technologies faces new challenges because of the very complicated silicon defect types and defect distribution. Yield ramp and yield improvement are not just about profitability and time-to-market, but also have a role in today’s electronics supply chain crisis. That means yield ramp affects not just the IC maker, but the global economy. Ever... » read more

The Era Of Packetized Scan Test Has Arrived


For decades, process and design scaling has triggered the adoption of transformative test solutions. About twenty years ago, when at-speed test became a de-facto requirement, on-chip compression became the norm to address test data time and volume. Over the last decade, hierarchical DFT enabled DFT engineers to apply a divide and conquer on large design, improving both implementation effort and... » read more

High-Quality Test And Embedded Analytics Are Vital For Secure SoCs


Applications such as smart cards and devices used in the defense industry require security features to ensure that sensitive data is inaccessible to outside agents. This used to be a niche requirement met through custom solutions. However, now that automotive and cyber-physical systems are proliferating, the requirements around secure test and monitoring are becoming mainstream. The current bes... » read more

Packetized Scan Test Delivery


The traditional approach to moving scan test data from chip-level pins to core-level scan channels is under pressure due to the dramatic rise in design size, design complexity, and test adaptation. To address these challenges, we now have the option of implementing a packetized data network for scan test that moves the scan data through the SoC much more efficiently than the traditional pin-... » read more

Have It All With No-Compromise DFT


The dramatic rise in manufacturing test time for today’s large and complex SoCs is rooted in the use of traditional approaches to moving scan test data from chip-level pins to core-level scan channels. The pin-multiplexing (mux) approach works fine for smaller designs but can become problematic with an increase in the number of cores and the design complexity on today’s SoCs. The next revol... » read more

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