Abstract
This work presents a design technique for CMOS static and dynamic checkers (to be used in self-checking circuits), that allows the detection of all internal single transistor stuck-on and bridging faults causing unacceptable degradations of the circuit dynamic performance (but not logical errors). Such a technique exploits simple voltage detector circuits to make sure that the intermediate faulty voltages inevitably produced by the faults of interest are always propagated at the checker output as logic errors.
With the use of our technique, the main disadvantages of static checkers, so far preventing their use in practical applications, are overcome.
The method has been applied to the particular case of two-rail (static as well as dynamic) checkers and its validity has been verified by means of electrical level simulations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
W. Maly, “Realistic Fault Modeling for VLSI Testing,” inProc. of Design Automation Conf., pp. 173–180, 1987.
N. Jha and S. Kundu,Testing and Reliable Design of CMOS Circuits, Kluwer, Boston, 1990.
P.K. Lala,Fault Tolerant and Fault Testable Hardware Design, Prentice-Hall International, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1985.
D.A. Anderson and G. Metze, “Design of Totally Self-Checking Check Circuits for m-Out-of-n Codes,”IEEE Transaction on Computers, vol. c-22, pp. 263–269, March 1973.
D.K. Pradhan and J.J. Stiffler, “Error-Correcting Codes and Self-Checking Circuits,”Computer, pp. 27–37, March 1980.
J.A. Abraham and W.K. Fuchs, “Fault and Error Models for VLSI,” inProc. of the IEEE, vol. 74, pp. 639–654, May 1986.
D. Feltham, P. Nigh, R. Carley, and W. Maly, “Current Sensing for Built-In Testing of CMOS Circuits,” inProc. of Int. Conf. on Computer Design, pp. 454–457, 1988.
F. Ferguson, M. Taylor, and T. Larrabee, “Testing for Parametric Faults in Static CMOS Circuits,” inProc. of Int. Test Conf., pp. 436–443, 1990.
C. Metra, M. Favalli, P. Olivo, and B. Riccò, “CMOS Checkers with Testable Bridging and Transistor Stuck-on Faults,” inProc. of Int. Test Conf., pp. 948–957, 1992.
M. Favalli, P. Olivo, F. Somenzi, and B. Riccò, “Fault Simulation for General FCMOS ICs,”J. of Electronic Testing: Theory and Application, vol. 2, pp. 181–190, 1991.
H. Hao and E. McCluskey, “Resistive Shorts” within CMOS Gates,” inProc. of Int. Test Conf., pp. 292–301, 1991.
M. Favalli, P. Olivo, and B. Riccò, “Dynamic Effects in the Detection of Bridging Faults in CMOS ICs,”J. of Electronic Testing: Theory and Application, vol. 3, pp. 197–205, June 1992.
P. Cox, P. Yang, S. Mahant-Shetti, and P. Chatterjee, “Statistical Modeling for Efficient Parametric Yield Estimation of MOS VLSI Circuits,”IEEE J. of Solid State Circuits, vol. SC-20, pp. 391–398, 1985.
S.W. Director, P. Feldmann, and K. Krishna, “Statistical Integrated Circuit Design,”IEEE J. of Solid State Circuits, vol. 28, pp. 595–605, March 1993.
M. Nicolaidis, “Shorts in Self-Checking Circuits,”J. of Electronic Testing: Theory and Application, vol. 1, pp. 257–273, 1991.
T. Nanya and T. Kawamura, “A Note on Strongly Fault-Secure Sequential Circuits,”IEEE Transaction on Computers, vol. C-36, pp. 1121–1123, September 1987.
S. Kundu and S.M. Reddy, “Embedded Totally Self-Checking Checkers: a Practical Design,”IEEE Design & Test of Computers, vol. 7, n. 4, pp. 5–12, August 1990.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Metra, C., Favalli, M., Olivo, P. et al. Design of CMOS checkers with improved testability of bridging and transistor stuck-on faults. J Electron Test 6, 7–22 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00993127
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00993127