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
S.A. Bota, Univ. de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
M. Rosales, Univ. de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
J.L. Rosello, Univ. de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
J. Segura, Univ. de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
A. Keshavarzi, Circuit Research Labs., Intel Corporation, Portland, OR, USA
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