BIST-based diagnostics of FPGA logic blocks
Charles E. Stroud, E. Lee, M. Abramovici · 2002
Accurate diagnosis is an essential requirement in many testing environments, since it is the basis for any repair or replacement strategy used for chip or system fault-tolerance. In this paper we present the first approach able to diagnose faulty programmable logic blocks (PLBs) in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) with maximal diagnostic resolution. Our approach is based on a new Built-In Self-Test (BIST) architecture for FPGAs and can accurately locate any single and most multiple faulty PLBs. An adaptive diagnostic strategy provides identification of faulty PLBs with a 7% increase in testing time over the complete detection test, and can also be used for manufacturing yield enhancement. We present results showing identification of faulty PLBs in defective ORCA chips.