The Gargantuan 5G Chip Challenge


Blazing fast upload and download speeds for cellular data are coming, but making the technology function as expected throughout its expected lifetime is an enormous challenge that will require substantial changes across the entire chip ecosystem. While sub-6GHz is an evolutionary step from 4G LTE, the real promise of 5G kicks in with millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology. But these higher-freq... » read more

High-Quality Test And Embedded Analytics For Secure Applications


Designs for secure applications such as smart cards and those used in the defense industry require security to ensure sensitive data is inaccessible to outside agents. This used to be a somewhat niche requirement and the implementation of custom solutions to meet these specific requirements was common. However, with the explosion within the semiconductor industry of automotive and cyber-phys... » 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

High-Quality Test And Embedded Analytics For Secure Applications


Designs for secure applications such as smart cards and those used in the defense industry require security to ensure sensitive data is inaccessible to outside agents. This used to be a somewhat niche requirement and the implementation of custom solutions to meet these specific requirements was common. However, with the explosion within the semiconductor industry of automotive and cyber-phys... » read more

Revving Up SiC And GaN


Silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) are becoming more popular for power electronics, particularly in automotive applications, driving down costs as volumes scale up and increasing the demand for better tools to design, verify, and test these wide-bandgap devices. Both SiC and GaN are proving essential in areas such as battery management in electric vehicles. They can handle much ... » read more

HSIO Loopback Turns Challenges Into Opportunities For Test At 112 Gbps


By Dave Armstrong and Don Thompson For both PCIe and Ethernet (IEEE 802.3,) signals are getting mighty small. With PCIe 5 reaching 32 Gbps (NRZ at 32 GBaud) and 802.3 reaching 112 Gbps (PAM4 at 56 GBaud), typical eye-mask limits are shrinking. Consequently, test requirements for high-speed I/O (HSIO) test are becoming daunting. HSIO test involves measurement of Tx eye height and width, co... » read more

Improving Volume Diagnosis and Debug with Test Failure Clustering and Reorganization


Abstract: "Volume diagnosis and debug play a key role in identifying systematic test failures caused by manufacturing defectivity, design marginalities, and test overkill. However, diagnosis tools often suffer from poor diagnosis resolution. In this paper, we propose techniques to improve diagnosis resolution by test failure clustering and reorganization. The effectiveness of our techniques ... » read more

Reversible Chain Diagnosis


For advanced technologies, the industry is seeing very complicated silicon defect types and defect distribution. One consequence is that scan chain diagnosis becomes more difficult. To improve the resolution of scan chain diagnosis, Tessent Diagnosis can use new scan chain test patterns to leverage a reversible scan chain architecture. This paper describes the novel scan chain architecture t... » read more

Automotive Keyless Entry SoC Test Methodologies And Techniques


By Philip Brock, Louis Benton, Jr., and Jonvyn Wongso Passive Entry Passive Start (PEPS) technology has become standard in the automotive market for keyless operation. A secure wireless communication system, PEPS enables you to lock and unlock the vehicle, and start and stop the vehicle without physically using the key. Electronic functionality embedded in the key fob to interact with the ve... » read more

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