Syntest Technologies, Inc.

Sen-Wei Tsai

Xiaoqing Wen

Hsin-Po Wang

Meng-Chyi Lin

Shyh-Horng Lin

Laung-Terng Wang

Khader S Abdel-Hafez

Ta-Chia Yeh

Laung-Terng (l-t) Wang

Po-Ching Hsu

Shih-Chia Kao

Hao-Jan Chao

Chi-Chan Hsu

Ming-Tung Chang

Jaehee Lee

A broadcaster, system, and method for reducing test data volume and test application time in an ATE (automatic test equipment) in a scan-based integrated circuit. The scan-based integrated circuit contains multiple scan chains, each scan chain comprising multiple scan cells coupled in series. The broadcaster is a combinational logic network coupled to an optional virtual scan controller and an optional scan connector. The virtual scan controller controls the operation of the broadcaster. The system transmits virtual scan patterns stored in the ATE and generates broadcast scan patterns through the broadcaster for testing manufacturing faults in the scan-based integrated circuit. The number of scan chains that can be supported by the ATE is significantly increased. Methods are further proposed to reorder scan cells in selected scan chains, to generate the broadcast scan patterns and virtual scan patterns, and to synthesize the broadcaster and a compactor in the scan-based integrated circuit.

Method and apparatus for broadcasting scan patterns in a scan-based integrated circuit

A method and apparatus for inserting design-for-debug (DFD) circuitries in an integrated circuit to debug or diagnose DFT modules, including scan cores, memory BIST (built-in self-test) cores, logic BIST cores, and functional cores. The invention further comprises using a DFD controller for executing a plurality of DFD commands to debug or diagnosis the DFT modules embedded with the DFD circuitries. When used alone or combined together, these DFD commands will detect or locate physical failures in the DFT modules in the integrated circuit on an evaluation board or system using a low-cost DFT debugger. A computer-aided design (CAD) method is further developed to synthesize the DFD controller and DFD circuitries according to the IEEE 1149.1 Boundary-scan Std. The DFD controller supports, but is not limited to, the following DFD commands: RUN_SCAN, RUN_MBIST, RUN_LBIST, DBG_SCAN, DBG_MBIST, DBG_LBIST, DBG_FUNCTION, SELECT, SHIFT, SHIFT_CHAIN, CAPTURE, RESET, BREAK, RUN, STEP, and STOP.

Method and apparatus for diagnosing failures in an integrated circuit using design-for-debug (DFD) techniques

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Sen-Wei Tsai