High Speed IO Access for Test forms the foundation for Silicon Lifecycle Management
Amit Pandey, Brendan Tully, Karthikeyan Natarajan · 2022
With the rapid growth in semiconductor complexity, higher expectations for SoC performance and longevity, there is a need to continuously monitor the silicon throughout its life cycle to maximize performance and identify defects before they impact system operations. SCAN Vectors are reused for Silicon Lifecycle Management (SLM) along with sensors which are embedded into the silicon device for monitoring and detecting failures before they impact system functions. The volume of such data generally tends to be huge which requires a robust network and access mechanism. With the industry moving to using the High-Speed IO for In-Field Test Access, this provides us an opportunity to use the same access mechanism for SLM. The High-Speed IO access mechanism provides plenty of bandwidth as the native protocol of these interfaces are used. In this paper we will provide an overview of the High-Speed IO access solution which enables the SCAN Vectors for In-Field SLM applications. We also explore HSAT architectures for SLM structures like SCAN, JTAG, sensors and monitors.