An alternative test method for the dual-port SRAM through the DesignWare SATA AHCI implementation in 3-D IC structures

The conventional methods for testing the Dual Port Random Access Memories (DPRAM) may not be suitable for the Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuit (3-D IC) structures, due to their limited test vectors with heterogeneous integration. This paper takes an Application Specific Integrated Chips (ASIC) approach to gain some insight into the Front-end behavioral testing and backend routability of the dual port memories with complex Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial-ATA) design, in a 3-D IC structure. The presented implementation used commercially available Dual Port memories from the two different vendors. The commercially available DesignWare Advanced Host Controller Interface (SATA/AHCI), which is based on the SATA 2.6 AHCI host and external SATA (eSATA) standard bus architecture, with My_foundry’s 14nm low power process (14lp) technologies for the logical and physical implementations. The methodology evaluates the memory quality and performance/characteristics, in terms of timing, power and area. This paper shows memory testing in both implementation/verification in a readily built-up SATA test environment.

An Alternative Test Method for the Dual Port SRAM Memory through the Designware SATA AHCI Implementation in 3-D IC Structures

Background: It is being considered that conventional methods for testing the dual port memories might not be suitable for the Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuit (3-D IC) structures due to the presence of the limited test vectors with heterogeneous integration. Objective: Find out a novel test methodology DPRAMs in 3-D IC structures. Methods: This paper has taken the approach called as Application Specific Integrated Chips(ASIC) to gain insights on Front-End behavioral testing and Back-End routability of the dual port memories integrated with complex Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial-ATA) design, in a 3-D IC structure. The presented implementation is using commercially available dual port memories from two different vendors. The commercially available DesignWare Advanced Host Controller Interface (SATA/AHCI) is based on the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA 2.6), AHCI host and external SATA (eSATA) standard bus architecture and being used with My_foundry’s 14nm Low Power (14LP) process technology for logical and physical implementations. Results: This paper shows memory testing in both implementation/verification in a readily built-up SATA test environment. Conclusion: It is being considered that the approach described here might be used as a tool/environment for evaluating any vendor's DPRAMs/2Ports RAMs/2Ports Register Files. As a result, it offers an alternative to the traditional test methodology.

Optimal Reduction in the Number of Test Vectors for Soft Processor Cores Implemented in FPGA

Testing FPGA-based soft processor cores requires a completely different methodology in comparison to standard processors. The stuck-at fault model is insufficient, as the logic is implemented by lookup tables (LUTs) in FPGA, and this SRAM-based LUT memory is vulnerable to single-event upset (SEU) mainly caused by cosmic radiations. Consequently, in this paper, we used combined SEU-induced and stuck-at fault models to simulate every possible fault. The test program written in an assembler was based on the bijective property. Furthermore, the fault detection matrix was determined, and this matrix describes the detectability of every fault by every test vector. The major novelty of this paper is the optimal reduction in the number of required test vectors in such a way that fault coverage is not reduced. Furthermore, this paper also studied the optimal selection of test vectors when only 95% maximal fault coverage is acceptable; in such a case, only three test vectors are required. Further, local and global test vector selection is also described.

Optimal Reduction of Number of Test Vectors for Soft Processor Cores Implemented in FPGA

This paper describes a new optimization methodology of testing vector sets reduction for testing of soft-processor cores and their individual blocks. The deterministic test vectors both for whole core and its individual blocks are investigated that significantly reduce the testing time and amount of test data that needs to be stored on the tester memory. The processor executes an assembler program which together with determined testing vectors ex-ercise its functionality. The new BIST methodology applicable at industrial testing of processor cores, diagnostics and dynamic reconfiguration of FPGA is proposed. This novel methodology combined with dynamic reconfiguration of FPGAs can be profitable applied for missions-critical i.e. FPGAs operate in space, or other difficult condition where are explore on radiation. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces many times testing time.

Implementation of a Parallel Fault Simulation System using PODEM in a Hardware Accelerator using Python

VLSI Testing is one of the essential domains in recent times. With the channel length of the transistor decreasing continually, the number of transistors in a chip increases, thus increasing the probability of defects or faults. Automatic Test Pattern Generator is one way to find such input test vectors to the circuit, which will help identify the faults if present. PODEM algorithm is one such algorithm used in this regard. This paper helps in reducing the runtime of this algorithm by the parallelism approach. Different stuck-at faults in the gate level circuit are simulated parallelly.

Adjustable PRPG for Low Power Test Patterns

As the power consumption is more in the processes of testing, test vector set compression and controlling of toggling plays a crucial role in reducing the power consumption during test mode. In exploring the controlling techniques of toggling, Pre-Selected Toggling (PRESTO) of test patterns is a technique that can control the toggling of a test patterns in a precise manner in Built-in Self -Test (BIST) architectures. In this paper we modify the architecture of existing Full Version PRESTO that can be used to generate test vectors and in addition binary sequences used as scan chins such that the controlling of sequence of test vectors depends on number of 1’s present in the switch code which is user defined thus reducing the testing time with significant fault coverage, and in addition the optimization is also observed in area and power. The area has decreased by 12.2% and power consumption by 15.43%. The Synthesis and implementation of the architectures are done using Artix7 (xc7a100tcsg324-3) FPGA family. The simulation results have been analyzed through Mentor-graphics Questa-sim 10.7C

Test Generation for Hardware Trojan Detection Using Correlation Analysis and Genetic Algorithm

Hardware Trojan (HT) is a major threat to the security of integrated circuits (ICs). Among various HT detection approaches, side channel analysis (SCA)-based methods have been extensively studied. SCA-based methods try to detect HTs by comparing side channel signatures from circuits under test with those from trusted golden references. The pre-condition for SCA-based HT detection to work is that the testers can collect extra signatures/anomalies introduced by activated HTs. Thus, activation of HTs and amplification of the differences between circuits under test and golden references are the keys to SCA-based HT detection methods. Test vectors are of great importance to the activation of HTs, but existing test generation methods have two major limitations. First, the number of test vectors required to trigger HTs is quite large. Second, the HT circuit’s activities are marginal compared with the whole circuit’s activities. In this article, we propose an optimized test generation methodology to assist SCA-based HT detection. Considering the HTs’ inherent surreptitious nature, inactive nodes with low transition probability are more likely to be selected as HT trigger nodes. Therefore, the correlations between circuit inputs and inactive nodes are first exploited to activate HTs. Then a test reordering process based on the genetic algorithm (GA) is implemented to increase the proportion of the HT circuit’s activities to the whole circuit’s activities. Experiments on 10 selected ISCAS benchmarks, wb_conmax benchmark, and b17 benchmark demonstrate that the number of test vectors required to trigger HTs reduces 28.8% on average compared with the result of MERO and MERS methods. After the test vector reordering process, the proportion of the HT circuit’s activities to the whole circuit’s activities is improved by 95% on average, compared with the result of MERS method.