A team of researchers from UConn and Duke University say they have found a more effective way to screen ever-shrinking microcircuits for defects.
The new method for searching for small delay defects, or SDDs, could resolve microchip-makers’ growing frustration with their ability to perform high-quality testing at high speeds, the researchers said Tuesday.
Team leaders Mohammad Tehranipoor, UConn associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Krishnendu Chakrabarty, Duke professor of electrical and computer engineering, Duke University, said current testing methods assume that SDDs appear only as physical defects in the circuit.
However, their methodology uses a reduced pattern set and provides higher quality test patterns for screening against SDDs.
“This is a major breakthrough for chip testing,” Tehranipoor and Chakrabarty, said in a joint statement. “By evaluating each test pattern according to its unique paths before applying the patterns to silicon, it allows the industry to select only high-quality patterns for testing. This will help to dramatically improve the quality of the test process and reduce the delay test costs while testers budgets.”
The team used funding from the Semiconductor Research Corp. and National Science Foundation for their research.
