Power supply current monitoring to detect CMOS IC defects during production testing quietly laid down its roots in the mid-1970s. Both Sandia Labs and RCA in the United States and Philips Labs in the Netherlands practiced this procedure on their CMOS ICs. At that time, this practice stemmed simply from an intuitive sense that CMOS ICs showing abnormal quiescent power supply current (IDDQ) contained defects. Later, this intuition was supported by data and analysis in the 1980s by Levi (RACD, Malaiya and Su (SUNY-Binghamton), Soden and Hawkins (Sandia Labs and the University of New Mexico), Jacomino and co-workers (Laboratoire d'Automatique de Grenoble), and Maly and co-workers (Carnegie Mellon University). Interest in IDDQ testing has advanced beyond the data reported in the 1980s and is now focused on applications and evaluations involving larger volumes of ICs that improve quality beyond what can be achieved by previous conventional means. In the conventional style of testing one attempts to propagate the logic states of the suspended nodes to primary outputs. This is done for all or most nodes of the circuit. For sequential circuits, in particular, the complexity of finding suitable tests is very high. In comparison, the IDDQ test does not observe the logic states, but measures the integrated current that leaks through all gates. In other words, it is like measuring a patient's temperature to determine the state of health. Despite perceived advantages, during the years that followed its initial announcements, skepticism about the practicality of IDDQ testing prevailed. The idea, however, provided a great opportunity to researchers. New results on test generation, fault simulation, design for testability, built-in self-test, and diagnosis for this style of testing have since been reported. After a decade of research, we are definitely closer to practice.

Testing techniques for VLSI circuits are undergoing many exciting changes. The predominant method for testing digital circuits consists of applying a set of input stimuli to the IC and monitoring the logic levels at primary outputs. If, for one or more inputs, there is a discrepancy between the observed output and the expected output then the IC is declared to be defective. A new approach to testing digital circuits, which has come to be known as IDDQ testing, has been actively researched for the last fifteen years. In IDDQ testing, the steady state supply current, rather than the logic levels at the primary outputs, is monitored. Years of research suggests that IDDQ testing can significantly improve the quality and reliability of fabricated circuits. This has prompted many semiconductor manufacturers to adopt this testing technique, among them Philips Semiconductors, Ford Microelectronics, Intel, Texas Instruments, LSI Logic, Hewlett-Packard, SUN microsystems, Alcatel, and SGS Thomson. This increase in the use of IDDQ testing should be of interest to three groups of individuals associated with the IC business: Product Managers and Test Engineers, CAD Tool Vendors and Circuit Designers. Introduction to IDDQ Testing is designed to educate this community. The authors have summarized in one volume the main findings of more than fifteen years of research in this area.

The power consumption of microprocessors is one of the most important challenges of high-performance chips and portable devices. In chapters drawn from Piguet's recently published Low-Power Electronics Design, Low-Power CMOS Circuits: Technology, Logic Design, and CAD Tools addresses the design of low-power circuitry in deep submicron technologies. It provides a focused reference for specialists involved in designing low-power circuitry, from transistors to logic gates. The book is organized into three broad sections for convenient access. The first examines the history of low-power electronics along with a look at emerging and possible future technologies. It also considers other technologies, such as nanotechnologies and optical chips, that may be useful in designing integrated circuits. The second part explains the techniques used to reduce power consumption at low levels. These include clock gating, leakage reduction, interconnecting and communication on chips, and adiabatic circuits. The final section discusses various CAD tools for designing low-power circuits. This section includes three chapters that demonstrate the tools and low-power design issues at three major companies that produce logic synthesizers. Providing detailed examinations contributed by leading experts, Low-Power CMOS Circuits: Technology, Logic Design, and CAD Tools supplies authoritative information on how to design and model for high performance with low power consumption in modern integrated circuits. It is a must-read for anyone designing modern computers or embedded systems.

Managing the power consumption of circuits and systems is now considered one of the most important challenges for the semiconductor industry. Elaborate power management strategies, such as dynamic voltage scaling, clock gating or power gating techniques, are used today to control the power dissipation during functional operation. The usage of these strategies has various implications on manufacturing test, and power-aware test is therefore increasingly becoming a major consideration during design-for-test and test preparation for low power devices. This book explores existing solutions for power-aware test and design-for-test of conventional circuits and systems, and surveys test strategies and EDA solutions for testing low power devices.

Abstract: "Many manufacturing defects in static CMOS circuits are not detected by tests generated using the traditional single stuck-at fault model. Many of these defects may be detected as increased propagation delay or as excessive quiescent power supply current (I[subscript DDQ]). In this paper we compare the costs of detecting probable manufacturing defects by the resulting excess I[subscript DDQ] with the costs of traditional logical testing methods."

This book discusses in detail the correlation between physical defects and logic faults, and shows you how Iddq testing locates these defects. The book provides planning guidelines and optimization methods and is illustrated with numerous examples ranging from simple circuits to extensive case studies.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A pragmatic approach to testing electronic systems As we move ahead in the electronic age, rapid changes in technology pose an ever-increasing number of challenges in testing electronic products. Many practicing engineers are involved in this arena, but few have a chance to study the field in a systematic way-learning takes place on the job. By covering the fundamental disciplines in detail, Principles of Testing Electronic Systems provides design engineers with the much-needed knowledge base. Divided into five major parts, this highly useful reference relates design and tests to the development of reliable electronic products; shows the main vehicles for design verification; examines designs that facilitate testing; and investigates how testing is applied to random logic, memories, FPGAs, and microprocessors. Finally, the last part offers coverage of advanced test solutions for today's very deep submicron designs. The authors take a phenomenological approach to the subject matter while providing readers with plenty of opportunities to explore the foundation in detail. Special features include: * An explanation of where a test belongs in the design flow * Detailed discussion of scan-path and ordering of scan-chains * BIST solutions for embedded logic and memory blocks * Test methodologies for FPGAs * A chapter on testing system on a chip * Numerous references

The 2nd edition of defect oriented testing has been extensively updated. New chapters on Functional, Parametric Defect Models and Inductive fault Analysis and Yield Engineering have been added to provide a link between defect sources and yield. The chapter on RAM testing has been updated with focus on parametric and SRAM stability testing. Similarly, newer material has been incorporated in digital fault modeling and analog testing chapters. The strength of Defect Oriented Testing for nano-Metric CMOS VLSIs lies in its industrial relevance.