Pushing Failure Mode Stimulus to Overcome the Limitation/Boundaries of Soft Defect Localization Tools

Temperature dependent failures are some of the most challenging cases that will be encountered by the analyst. Soft Defect Localization (SDL) is a technique used to analyze such temperature-dependent, ‘soft defect’ failures [1]. There are many literatures that discuss this technique and its different applications [2-7]. Dynamic Analysis by Laser Stimulation (DALS) is one of the known SDL implementations [8-11]. However, there are cases where the failure is occurring at a temperature where the laser alone is not sufficient to effectively induce a change of device behavior. In these situations, the analyst needs to think out of the box by understanding how the device will react to external conditions and to make necessary adjustments in DALS settings. This paper will discuss three cases that presents different challenges such as performing DALS analysis where the failing temperature is too high for the laser to induce a change of behavior from ambient temperature, cold temperature failure, complex triggering (Serial Peripheral Interface, SPI), and using an internal signal as input for DALS analysis. The approach used for a successful DALS analysis of each case will be discussed in detail.

Distributed Genetic Algorithms for Low-Power, Low-Cost and Small-Sized Memory Devices

This work presents a strategy to implement a distributed form of genetic algorithm (GA) on low power, low cost, and small-sized memory aiming for increased performance and reduction of energy consumption when compared to standalone GAs. This strategy focuses on making a distributed version of GA feasible to run as a low cost and a low power consumption embedded system utilizing devices such as 8-bit microcontrollers (µCs) and Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) for data transmission between those devices. Details about how the distributed GA was designed from a previous standalone implementation made by the authors and how the project is structured are presented. Furthermore, this work investigates the implementation limitations and shows results about its proper operation, most of them collected with the Hardware-In-Loop (HIL) technique, and resource consumption such as memory and processing time. Finally, some scenarios are analyzed to identify where this distributed version can be utilized and how it is compared to the single-node standalone implementation in terms of performance and energy consumption.

Software driver for working with different types of SPI interfaces

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are configurable integrated circuits whose logic is defined through programming. The use of FPGAs makes it possible to obtain devices capable of changing the configuration, adapting to a specific task due to their flexibly changeable, programmable structure. When developing complex devices, ready-made IP-cores can be used as components for design. The use of software IP-cores allows them to be used most effectively in the final structure, to a significant extent to reduce design costs. A software driver has been developed for working with different types of SPI interfaces (Serial Peripheral Interface), which implements switching the input-output line when transmitting data through a FPGA.