International Test Conference 2004 (ITC'04) WITHIN DIE THERMAL GRADIENT IMPACT ON CLOCK-SKEW: ANEW TYPE OF DELAY-FAULT MECHANISM Charlotte, NC, USA October 26-October 28 ISBN: 0-7803-8581-0
DOI Bookmark: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/ITC.2004.206
As chips become faster, the need to test them at their intended speed of operation has been recognized. High-speed operation, together with the higher switching activity typically induced during test, can result in a die-thermal distribution significantly different from that achieved during normal operation. Differences in thermal map distribution between normal- and test-mode operations give rise to a nonuniform impact on the relative path delay within logic blocks. The impact of test-induced hot spots may artificially slow down non-critical paths or speed-up critical ones with respect to the clock making the whole die to fail (pass) delay testing for a good (bad) part. The non-uniform thermal-induced delay is especially important for clock circuitry, the most critical block, which is impacted even if exact zero-skew clock routing algorithms are adopted. In this work we analyze the impact of thermal map temperature changes on the clock delay identifying a new delay-fault mechanism. We propose a technique to minimize the impact of different test- and normal-mode thermal maps by making the clock tree speed independent of temperature gradients. This technique allows applying confidently delay test patterns to the die regardless of the thermalmap test-induced modification.
Citation:
S.A. Bota, M. Rosales, J.L. Rosello, J. Segura, A. Keshavarzi, "WITHIN DIE THERMAL GRADIENT IMPACT ON CLOCK-SKEW: ANEW TYPE OF DELAY-FAULT MECHANISM," itc, pp.1276-1284, International Test Conference 2004 (ITC'04), 2004 Usage of this product signifies your acceptance of the Terms of Use. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||