22 research outputs found
BIST test pattern generator based on partitioning circuit inputs
Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-35).by Clara Sánchez.M.Eng
Embedding deterministic patterns in partial pseudo-exhaustive test
The topic of this thesis is related to testing of very large scale integration circuits. The thesis presents the idea of optimizing mixed-mode built-in self-test (BIST) scheme. Mixed-mode BIST consists of two phases. The first phase is pseudo-random testing or partial pseudo-exhaustive testing (P-PET). For the faults not detected by the first phase, deterministic test patterns are generated and applied in the second phase. Hence, the defect coverage of the first phase influences the number of patterns to be generated and stored. The advantages of P-PET in comparison with usual pseudo-random test are in obtaining higher fault coverage and reducing the number of deterministic patterns in the second phase of mixed-mode BIST. Test pattern generation for P-PET is achieved by selecting characteristic polynomials of multiple-polynomial linear feedback shift register (MP-LFSR). In this thesis, the mixed-mode BIST scheme with P-PET in the first phase is further improved in terms of the fault coverage of the first phase. This is achieved by optimization of polynomial selection of P-PET. In usual mixed-mode BIST, the set of undetected by the first phase faults is handled in the second phase by generating deterministic test patterns for them. The method in the thesis is based on consideration of these patterns during polynomial selection. In other words, we are embedding deterministic test patterns in P-PET. In order to solve the problem, the algorithm for the selection of characteristic polynomials covering the pre-generated patterns is developed. The advantages of the proposed approach in terms of the defect coverage and the number of faults left after the first phase are presented using contemporary industrial circuits. A comparison with usual pseudo-random testing is also performed. The results prove the benefits of P-PET with embedded test patterns in terms of the fault coverage, while maintaining comparable test length and time
Built-In Self-Test (BIST) for Multi-Threshold NULL Convention Logic (MTNCL) Circuits
This dissertation proposes a Built-In Self-Test (BIST) hardware implementation for Multi-Threshold NULL Convention Logic (MTNCL) circuits. Two different methods are proposed: an area-optimized topology that requires minimal area overhead, and a test-performance-optimized topology that utilizes parallelism and internal hardware to reduce the overall test time through additional controllability points. Furthermore, an automated software flow is proposed to insert, simulate, and analyze an input MTNCL netlist to obtain a desired fault coverage, if possible, through iterative digital and fault simulations. The proposed automated flow is capable of producing both area-optimized and test-performance-optimized BIST circuits and scripts for digital and fault simulation using commercial software that may be utilized to manually verify or adjust further, if desired
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Testing for delay defects utilizing test data compression techniques
textAs technology shrinks new types of defects are being discovered and new fault models are being created for those defects. Transition delay and path delay fault models are two such models that have been created, but they still fall short in that they are unable to obtain a high test coverage of smaller delay defects; these defects can cause functional behavior to fail and also indicate potential reliability issues. The first part of this dissertation addresses these problems by presenting an enhanced timing-based delay fault testing technique that incorporates the use of standard delay ATPG, along with timing information gathered from standard static timing analysis. Utilizing delay fault patterns typically increases the test data volume by 3-5X when compared to stuck-at patterns. Combined with the increase in test data volume associated with the increase in gate count that typically accompanies the miniaturization of technology, this adds up to a very large increase in test data volume that directly affect test time and thus the manufacturing cost. The second part of this dissertation presents a technique for improving test compression and reducing test data volume by using multiple expansion ratios while determining the configuration of the scan chains for each of the expansion ratios using a dependency analysis procedure that accounts for structural dependencies as well as free variable dependencies to improve the probability of detecting faults. Finally, this dissertation addresses the problem of unknown values (X’s) in the output response data corrupting the data and degrading the performance of the output response compactor and thus the overall amount of test compression. Four techniques are presented that focus on handling response data with large percentages of X’s. The first uses X-canceling MISR architecture that is based on deterministically observing scan cells, and the second is a hybrid approach that combines a simple X-masking scheme with the X-canceling MISR for further gains in test compression. The third and fourth techniques revolve around reiterative LFSR X-masking, which take advantage of LFSR-encoded masks that can be reused for multiple scan slices in novel ways.Electrical and Computer Engineerin
Tester for chosen sub-standard of the IEEE 802.1Q
Tato práce se zabĂ˝vá analyzovánĂm IEEE 802.1Q standardu TSN skupiny a návrhem testovacĂho modulu. TestovacĂ modul je napsán v jazyku VHDL a je moĹľnĂ© jej implementovat do Intel Stratix® V GX FPGA (5SGXEA7N2F45C2) vĂ˝vojovĂ© desky. Standard IEEE 802.1Q (TSN) definuje deterministickou komunikace pĹ™es Ethernet sĂt, v reálnĂ©m ÄŤase, poĹľĂvánĂm globálnĂho ÄŤasu a správnĂ˝m rozvrhem vysĂlánĂm a pĹ™Ăjmem zpráv. HlavnĂ funkce tohoto standardu jsou: ÄŤasová synchronizace, plánovánĂ provozu a konfigurace sĂtÄ›. KaĹľdá z tÄ›chto funkcĂ je definovaná pomocĂ vĂce rĹŻznĂ˝ch podskupin tohoto standardu. Podle definice IEEE 802.1Q standardu je moĹľno tyto podskupiny vzájemnÄ› libovolnÄ› kombinovat. NÄ›kterĂ© podskupiny standardu nemohou fungovat nezávisle, musĂ vyuĹľĂvat funkce jinĂ˝ch podskupin standardu. Realizace funkce podskupin standardu je moĹľná softwarovÄ›, hardwarovÄ›, nebo jejich kombinacĂ. Na základÄ› výše uvedenĂ˝ch fakt, implementace podskupin standardu, kterĂ© jsou softwarovÄ› souvisejĂcĂ, byly vylouÄŤenĂ©. Taky byly vylouÄŤenĂ© podskupiny standardĹŻ, kterĂ© jsou závislĂ© na jinĂ˝ch podskupinách. IEEE 802.1Qbu byl vybrán jako vhodná část pro realizaci hardwarovĂ©ho testu. RĹŻznĂ© zpĹŻsoby testovánĂ byly vysvÄ›tleny jako DFT, BIST, ATPG a dalšà jinĂ© techniky. Pro hardwarovĂ© testovánĂ byla vybrána „Protocol Aware (PA)“technika, protoĹľe tato technika zrychluje testovánĂ, dovoluje opakovanou pouĹľitelnost a taky zkracuje dobu uvedenĂ na trh. TestovacĂ modul se skládá ze dvou objektĹŻ (generátor a monitor), kterĂ© majĂ implementovanou IEEE 802.1Qbu podskupinu standardu. Funkce generátoru je vygenerovat náhodnĂ© nebo nenáhodnĂ© impulzy a potom je poslat do testovanĂ©ho zaĹ™Ăzeni ve správnĂ©m definovanĂ©m protokolu. Funkce monitoru je pĹ™ijat ethernet rámce a ověřit jejich správnost. Objekty jsou navrhnuty stejnĂ˝m zpĹŻsobem na „TOP“úrovni a skládajĂ se ze ÄŤtyĹ™ modulĹŻ: Avalon MM rozhranĂ, dvou šablon a jednoho portu. Avalon MM rozhranĂ bylo vytvoĹ™eno pro komunikaci softwaru s hardwarem. Tento modul pĹ™ijme pakety ze softwaru a potom je dekĂłduje podle definovanĂ©ho protokolu a „pod-protokolu “. „Pod-protokol“se skládá z pĹ™Ăkazu a hodnoty danĂ©ho pĹ™Ăkazu. Podle dekĂłdovanĂ©ho pĹ™Ăkazu a hodnot danĂ˝ch pĹ™Ăkazem je kontrolovanĂ˝ celĂ˝ objekt. Ĺ ablona se pouĹľĂvá na generovánĂ nebo ověřovánĂ náhodnĂ˝ch nebo nenáhodnĂ˝ch dat. DvÄ› šablony byly implementovány pro expresnĂ ověřovánĂ nebo preempÄŤnĂ transakce, definovanĂ© IEEE 802.1Qbu. Porty byly vytvoĹ™enĂ© pro komunikaci mezi testovanĂ˝m zaĹ™ĂzenĂm a šablonou podle danĂ©ho standardu. Port „generátor“má za Ăşkol vybrat a vyslat rámce podle priority a ÄŤasu vysĂlanĂ. Port „monitor“pĹ™ijme rámce do „content-addressable memory”, která ověřuje priority rámce a podle toho je posĂlá do správnĂ© šablony. VĂ˝sledky prokázaly, Ĺľe tato testovacĂ technika dosahuje vysokĂ© rychlosti a rychlĂ© implementace.This master paper is dealing with the analysis of IEEE 802.1Q group of TSN standards and with the design of HW tester. Standard IEEE 802.1Qbu has appeared to be an optimal solution for this paper. Detail explanation of this sub-standard are included in this paper. As HW test the implementation, a protocol aware technique was chosen in order to accelerate testing. Paper further describes architecture of this tester, with detail explanation of the modules. Essential issue of protocol aware controlling objects by SW, have been resolved and described. Result proof that this technique has reached higher speed of testing, reusability, and fast implementation.
VirtualScan: a new compressed scan technology for test cost reduction
This work describes the VirtualScan technology for scan test cost reduction. Scan chains in a VirtualScan circuit are split into shorter ones and the gap between external scan ports and internal scan chains are bridged with a broadcaster and a compactor. Test patterns for a VirtualScan circuit are generated directly by one-pass VirtualScan ATPG, in which multi-capture clocking and maximum test compaction are supported. In addition, VirtualScan ATPG avoids unknown-value and aliasing effects algorithmically without adding any additional circuitry. The VirtualScan technology has achieved successful tape-outs of industrial chips and has been proven to be an efficient and easy-to-implement solution for scan test cost reduction.2004 International Conference on Test, 26-28 October 2004, Charlotte, NC, USA, US
Test and Testability of Asynchronous Circuits
The ever-increasing transistor shrinkage and higher clock frequencies are causing serious clock distribution, power management, and reliability issues. Asynchronous design is predicted to have a significant role in tackling these challenges because of its distributed control mechanism and on-demand, rather than continuous, switching activity.
Null Convention Logic (NCL) is a robust and low-power asynchronous paradigm that introduces new challenges to test and testability algorithms because 1) the lack of deterministic timing in NCL complicates the management of test timing, 2) all NCL gates are state-holding and even simple combinational circuits show sequential behaviour, and 3) stuck-at faults on gate internal feedback (GIF) of NCL gates do not always cause an incorrect output and therefore are undetectable by automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) algorithms.
Existing test methods for NCL use clocked hardware to control the timing of test. Such test hardware could introduce metastability issues into otherwise highly robust NCL devices. Also, existing test techniques for NCL handle the high-statefulness of NCL circuits by excessive incorporation of test hardware which imposes additional area, propagation delay and power consumption.
This work, first, proposes a clockless self-timed ATPG that detects all faults on the gate inputs and a share of the GIF faults with no added design for test (DFT). Then, the efficacy of quiescent current (IDDQ) test for detecting GIF faults undetectable by a DFT-less ATPG is investigated. Finally, asynchronous test hardware, including test points, a scan cell, and an interleaved scan architecture, is proposed for NCL-based circuits. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the first work that develops clockless, self-timed test techniques for NCL while minimising the need for DFT, and also the first work conducted on IDDQ test of NCL.
The proposed methods are applied to multiple NCL circuits with up to 2,633 NCL gates (10,000 CMOS Boolean gates), in 180 and 45 nm technologies and show average fault coverage of 88.98% for ATPG alone, 98.52% including IDDQ test, and 99.28% when incorporating test hardware. Given that this fault coverage includes detection of GIF faults, our work has 13% higher fault coverage than previous work. Also, because our proposed clockless test hardware eliminates the need for double-latching, it reduces the average area and delay overhead of previous studies by 32% and 50%, respectively
SCAN CHAIN BASED HARDWARE SECURITY
Hardware has become a popular target for attackers to hack into any computing and communication system. Starting from the legendary power analysis attacks discovered 20 years ago to the recent Intel Spectre and Meltdown attacks, security vulnerabilities in hardware design have been exploited for malicious purposes. With the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications, where the IoT devices are extremely resource constrained, many proven secure but computational expensive cryptography protocols cannot be applied on such devices. Thus there is an urgent need to understand the hardware vulnerabilities and develop cost effective mitigation methods.
One established field in the semiconductor and integrated circuit (IC) industry, known as IC test, has the goal of ensuring that fabricated ICs are free of manufacturing defects and perform the required functionalities. Testing is essential to isolate faulty chips from good ones. The concept of design for test (DFT) has been integrated in the commercial IC design and fabrication process for several decades. Scan chain, which provides test engineer access to all the flip flops in the chip through the scan in (SI) and scan out (SO) ports, is the backbone of industrial testing methods and can be found in almost all the modern designs. In addition to IC testing, scan chain has found applications in intellectual property (IP) protection and IC identification. However, attackers can also leverage the controllability and observability of scan chain as a side channel to break systems such as cryptographic chips. This dissertation addresses these two important security problems by proposing (1) a practical scan chain based security primitive for IP protection and (2) a partial scan chain framework that can mitigate all the existing scan based attacks.
First, we observe the fact that each D-flip-flop has two output ports, Q and Q’, designed to simplify the logic and has been used to reduce the power consumption for IC test. The availability of both Q and Q’ ports provide the opportunity for IP protection. More specifically, we can generate a digital fingerprint by selecting different connection styles between adjacent scan cells during the design of scan chain. This method has two major advantages: fingerprints are created as a post-silicon procedure and therefore there will be little fabrication overhead; altering the connection style requires the modification of test vectors for each fingerprinted IP and thus enables a non-intrusive fingerprint verification method. This addresses the overhead and detectability problems, two of the most challenging problems of designing practical IP fingerprinting techniques in the past two decades. Combined with the recently developed reconfigurable scan networks (RSNs) that are popular for embedded and IoT devices, we design an IC identification (ID) scheme utilizing the different connection styles. We perform experiments on standard benchmarks to demonstrate that our approach has low design overhead. We also conduct security analysis to show that such fingerprints and IC IDs are robust against various attacks.
In the second part of this dissertation, we consider the scan chain side channel attack, which has been reported as one of the most severe side channel attacks to modern secure systems. We argue that the current countermeasures are restricted to the requirement of providing direct SI and SO for testing and thus suffers the vulnerability of leaving this side channel open to the attackers as well. Therefore, we propose a novel public-private partial scan chain based approach with the basic idea of removing the flip flops that store sensitive information from the scan chain. This will eliminate the scan chain side channel, but it also limits IC test. The key contribution in our proposed public-private partial scan chain design is that it can keep the full test coverage while providing security to the scan chain. This is achieved by chaining the removed flip flops into one or more private partial scan chains and adding protections to the SI and SO ports of such chains. Unlike the traditional partial scan design which not only fails to provide full fault coverage, but also incur huge overhead in test time and test vector generation time, we propose a set of techniques to ensure that the desired test vectors can be entered into the system efficiently. These techniques include test vector reordering, test vector reusing, and test vector generation based on a novel finite state machine (FSM) structure we have invented. On the other hand, to enable the test engineers the ability to observe the test output to diagnose the chip while not leaking information to the attackers, we propose two lightweight mechanisms, one based on linear feedback shift register (LFSR) and the other one based on configurable physical unclonable function (PUF). Finally, we discuss a protocol on how in-field test can be realized using our public-private partial scan chain. We conduct experiments with industrial scan design tools to demonstrate that the required hardware in our approach has negligible area overhead and gives full test coverage with reduced test time and does not need to re-generate test vectors.
In sum, this dissertation focuses on the role of scan chain, a conventional design for test facility, in hardware security. We show that scan chain features can be leveraged to create practical IP protection techniques including IP watermarking and fingerprinting as well as IC identification and authentication. We also propose a novel public-private partial scan design principle to close the scan chain side channel to the attackers. Through this dissertation work, we demonstrate that it is possible to develop highly practical scan chain based techniques that can benefit both the community of IC test and hardware security
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Testability considerations for implementing an embedded memory subsystem
textThere are a number of testability considerations for VLSI design,
but test coverage, test time, accuracy of test patterns and
correctness of design information for DFD (Design for debug) are
the most important ones in design with embedded memories. The goal
of DFT (Design-for-Test) is to achieve zero defects. When it comes
to the memory subsystem in SOCs (system on chips), many flavors of
memory BIST (built-in self test) are able to get high test
coverage in a memory, but often, no proper attention is given to
the memory interface logic (shadow logic). Functional testing and
BIST are the most prevalent tests for this logic, but functional
testing is impractical for complicated SOC designs. As a result,
industry has widely used at-speed scan testing to detect delay
induced defects. Compared with functional testing, scan-based
testing for delay faults reduces overall pattern generation
complexity and cost by enhancing both controllability and
observability of flip-flops. However, without proper modeling of
memory, Xs are generated from memories. Also, when the design has
chip compression logic, the number of ATPG patterns is increased
significantly due to Xs from memories. In this dissertation, a
register based testing method and X prevention logic are presented
to tackle these problems.
An important design stage for scan based testing with memory
subsystems is the step to create a gate level model and verify
with this model. The flow needs to provide a robust ATPG netlist
model. Most industry standard CAD tools used to analyze fault
coverage and generate test vectors require gate level models.
However, custom embedded memories are typically designed using a
transistor-level flow, there is a need for an abstraction step to
generate the gate models, which must be equivalent to the actual
design (transistor level). The contribution of the research is a
framework to verify that the gate level representation of custom
designs is equivalent to the transistor-level design.
Compared to basic stuck-at fault testing, the number of patterns
for at-speed testing is much larger than for basic stuck-at fault
testing. So reducing test and data volume are important. In this
desertion, a new scan reordering method is introduced to reduce
test data with an optimal routing solution. With in depth
understanding of embedded memories and flows developed during the
study of custom memory DFT, a custom embedded memory Bit Mapping
method using a symbolic simulator is presented in the last chapter
to achieve high yield for memories.Electrical and Computer Engineerin