FAST

Please note: student research assistant position available

FAST – Reliability Assessment using „Faster-than-at-Speed Test“

since 02.2017, DFG-Project: WU 245/19-1

State-of-the-art nanoscale technologies allow for the integration of billions of transistors with feature sizes of 14 nm or below into a single chip. This enables innovative approaches and solutions in many application domains, but it also comes along with fundamental challenges. Early life failures are particularly critical, as they can cause product recalls associated with a loss of billions of dollars. A major cause of early life failures are "weak" devices that operate correctly during manufacturing test, but cannot stand operational stress in the field. While other failure mechanisms, such as aging or external disturbances, to some extent, may be compensated by a robust design, potential early life failures must be detected by tests, and the respective systems have to be sorted out. This requires specific approaches far beyond today’s state-of-the-art.

As they work properly in the beginning, weak structures must be identified by analyzing the non-functional circuit behavior with the help of appropriate observables. Besides power consumption, the circuit timing is one of the most important reliability indicators. In particular, small delay faults may indicate marginal hardware that can degrade further under stress. However, they can be “hidden” at nominal frequency and only be detected at higher frequencies (“faster-than-at-speed test” / FAST). Therefore, conventional approaches for testing reach their limitations, and
new methods must be investigated and developed in the following three domains:

  1. Specific techniques for „design for test“ (DFT) must be developed to deal with the challenges of testing beyond nominal frequency.
  2. Strategies for test scheduling must ensure that a maximum fault coverage is achieved with a minimum number of test frequencies and a short test time.
  3. Appropriate metrics are needed to quantify the coverage of weak devices. Here it is particularly challenging to distinguish the behavior of week devices from variations due to nanoscale integration.

Since FAST imposes extreme requirements on the automatic test equipment (ATE), it is very important to support an efficient implementation as a built-in self-test (BIST).

Within the framework of the project, strategies and solutions will be developed for the problems mentioned above. This way, the enormous cost of a traditional „burn-in“ test can be reduced, thus enabling the introduction of nanoscale technology to new application domains.

Publications

  1. 2023

    1. Identifying Resistive Open Defects in Embedded Cells under Variations. Zahra Paria Najafi-Haghi and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. Journal of Electronic Testing: Theory and Applications (JETTA) (2023), pp. 1–27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-023-06044-z
    2. Robust Resistive Open Defect Identification Using Machine Learning with Efficient Feature Selection. Zahra Paria Najafi-Haghi; Florian Klemme; Hanieh Jafarzadeh; Hussam Amrouch and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE’23), Antwerp, Belgium, 2023.
  2. 2022

    1. On Extracting Reliability Information from Speed Binning. Zahra Paria Najafi-Haghi; Florian Klemme; Hussam Amrouch and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the 27th IEEE European Test Symposium (ETS’22), Barcelona, Spain, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ETS54262.2022.9810443
    2. Stress-Aware Periodic Test of Interconnects. Sadeghi-Kohan Somayeh; Sybille Hellebrand and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. Journal of Electronic Testing: Theory and Applications (JETTA) (January 2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-021-05979-5
    3. Efficient and Robust Resistive Open Defect Detection based on Unsupervised Deep Learning. Yiwen Liao; Zahra Paria Najafi-Haghi; Hans-Joachim Wunderlich and Bin Yang. In In Proceedings of the IEEE International Test Conference (ITC’22), Anaheim, CA, USA, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ITC50671.2022.00026
  3. 2021

    1. Resistive Open Defect Classification of Embedded Cells under Variations. Zahra Paria Najafi-Haghi and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the IEEE Latin-American Test Symposium (LATS’21), Virtual, 2021, pp. 1--6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LATS53581.2021.9651857
  4. 2020

    1. GPU-accelerated Time Simulation of  Systems with Adaptive Voltage and Frequency Scaling. Eric Schneider and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEEConference  on Design, Automation Test in Europe (DATE’20), Grenoble, France, 2020, pp. 1--6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE48585.2020.9116256
    2. Logic Fault Diagnosis of Hidden Delay Defects. Stefan Holst; Matthias Kampmann; Alexander Sprenger; Jan Dennis Reimer; Sybille Hellebrand; Hans-Joachim Wunderlich and Xiaoqing Wen. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Test Conference (ITC’20), Washington DC, USA, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ITC44778.2020.9325234
    3. Switch Level Time Simulation of CMOS Circuits with Adaptive Voltage and Frequency Scaling. Eric Schneider and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the  IEEE VLSI TestSymposium (VTS’20), San Diego, US, 2020, pp. 1--6.
    4. Switch Level Time Simulation of CMOS Circuits with Adaptive Voltage and Frequency Scaling. Eric Schneider and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the  IEEE VLSI TestSymposium (VTS’20), San Diego, US, 2020, pp. 1--6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/VTS48691.2020.9107642
    5. Using Programmable Delay Monitors for  Wear-Out and Early Life Failure Prediction. Chang Liu; Eric Schneider and Hans-Joachim. Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEEConference  on Design, Automation Test in Europe (DATE’20), Grenoble, France, 2020, pp. 1--6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE48585.2020.9116284
    6. Variation-Aware Defect Characterization at Cell Level. Zahra Najafi Haghi; Marzieh Hashemipour Nazari and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the 25th IEEE European Test Symposium (ETS’20), Tallinn, Estonia, 2020, pp. 1--6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ETS48528.2020.9131600
  5. 2019

    1. Variation-Aware Small Delay Fault Diagnosis on Compressed Test Responses. Stefan Holst; Eric Schneider; Michael A. Kochte; Xiaoqing Wen and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the IEEE International TestConference (ITC’19), Washington DC, USA, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ITC44170.2019.9000143
    2. Built-in Test for Hidden Delay Faults. Matthias Kampmann; Michael A. Kochte; Chang Liu; Eric Schneider; Sybille Hellebrand and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of IntegratedCircuits and Systems (TCAD) 38, 10 (October 2019), pp. 1956–1968. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2018.2864255
    3. Built-in Test for Hidden Delay Faults. Matthias Kampmann; Michael A. Kochte; Chang Liu; Eric Schneider; Sybille Hellebrand and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of IntegratedCircuits and Systems (TCAD) 38, 10 (October 2019), pp. 1956–1968. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2018.2864255
    4. Variation-Aware Small Delay Fault Diagnosis on Compressed Test Responses. Stefan Holst; Eric Schneider; Michael A. Kochte; Xiaoqing Wen and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the IEEE International TestConference (ITC’19), Washington DC, USA, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ITC44170.2019.9000143
  6. 2018

    1. Extending Aging Monitors for Early Life and Wear-out Failure Prevention. Chang Liu; Eric Schneider; Matthias Kampmann; Sybille Hellebrand and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the 27th IEEE Asian Test Symposium (ATS’18), Hefei, Anhui, China, 2018, pp. 92--97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ATS.2018.00028
    2. Extending Aging Monitors for Early Life and Wear-out Failure Prevention. Chang Liu; Eric Schneider; Matthias Kampmann; Sybille Hellebrand and Hans-Joachim Wunderlich. In Proceedings of the 27th IEEE Asian Test Symposium (ATS’18), Hefei, Anhui, China, 2018, pp. 92--97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ATS.2018.00028

Contact

This image shows Hans-Joachim Wunderlich

Hans-Joachim Wunderlich

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil.

Research Group Computer Architecture,
retired

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