Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

Sarthak Singhal

Krishna Chakravadhanula

Brian Edward Foutz

Christos Papameletis

Vivek Chickermane

Prateek Kumar Rai

Puneet Kumar Arora

Subhasish Mukherjee

Norman Robert Card

Sameer Chakravarthy Chillarige

Ankit Bandejia

Bharath Nandakumar

Huafeng Yang

A system includes a memory that stores instructions and a processing unit that accesses the memory and executes the instructions. The instructions include an EDA application that includes a circuit layout module that generates an initial circuit layout in response to a circuit netlist. The circuit netlist includes functional logic, the test-point nodes interconnecting portions of the functional logic, and a plurality of test-point flops associated with scan-chains. The EDA application also includes a test-point flop allocation module that divides the test-point nodes into test-point sharing groups based on a physical location of the test-point nodes and based on a test-point allocation parameter. The module relocates each of the test-point flops proximal to a test-point sharing group to generate an adjusted circuit layout associated with the circuit design. The adjusted circuit layout is employable to fabricate an integrated circuit (IC) chip.

Physical awareness of test-point sharing in a circuit design

A system includes a memory that stores instructions and receives a circuit netlist, and includes a processing unit that accesses the memory and executes the instructions. The instructions include an EDA application that includes a test-point flop allocation module that divide the test-point nodes into a plurality of test-point sharing groups in which each of the test-point nodes is associated with one of the clock-gates that is common to each of at least one flip-flop of the portion of the functional logic coupled to each of the respective test-point nodes in the test-point sharing group. The test-point flop allocation module can further allocate one of the test-point flops to each of the test-point sharing groups. The EDA application also includes a circuit layout module configured to generate a circuit layout associated with the circuit design based on the circuit netlist. The circuit layout is employable to fabricate an IC chip.

Clock-based test-point flop sharing in a circuit design

Embodiments included herein are directed towards a launch off shift circuit module. Embodiments included a first flip-flop configured to receive a clock signal and a scan enable signal. Embodiments may further include a combinational logic circuit configured to receive an input from the first flip-flop and a launch off shift mode signal. The first flip-flop and the combinational logic circuit may be located inside a launch off shift module boundary.

Launch off shift process

This disclosure relates scan chain stitching. In one example, scan chain elements from a scan chain element space can be received for a scan chain partition. The scan chain elements can be grouped based on scan chain element grouping criteria to form scan chain groups. Scan chain data identifying a number of scan chains for the scan chain partition can be received. The scan chains can be scan chain balanced across the scan chain groups to assign each scan chain to one of the scan chain groups. The scan chain elements associated with each scan chain of the scan chains can be scan chain element balanced. Scan chain elements for each associated scan chain can be connected to form a scan chain data test path during a generation of scan chain circuitry in response to the scan chain element balancing.

Systems and methods for scan chain stitching

A system includes a memory that stores instructions and receives a circuit netlist, and includes a processing unit that accesses the memory and executes the instructions. The instructions include an EDA application that includes a test-point flop allocation module that is configured to evaluate the circuit netlist to determine compatibility of the test-point nodes in the circuit netlist. The test-point flop allocation module can further allocate each of the test-point flops to a test-point sharing group comprising a plurality of compatible test-point nodes. The EDA application also includes a circuit layout module configured to generate a circuit layout associated with the circuit design, the circuit layout comprising the functional logic and scan-chains comprising the test-point flops allocated to the test-point sharing groups in response to the circuit netlist. The circuit layout is employable to fabricate an integrated circuit (IC) chip.

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Noida-Uttar Pradesh, India

Sarthak Singhal