Adaptive multi-site testing for analog/mixed-signal circuits incorporating neighborhood information

Abstract

Increasing integration packs more functionality in a single chip necessitating the testing of even more specification parameters. However, there is a tendency to keep test time budged constrained, which leads test engineers to seek more efficient test strategies. Statistical test compaction methods offer generic and circuit independent means of achieving efficient testing. Adaptive test methodologies have been shown to achieve better test quality versus test time trade-off compared to non-adaptive methods. In this work, we propose a new adaptive test approach geared for multi-site applications to achieve a significantly better test time/test quality trade-off. We employ an innovative compound-device approach that enables us to exploit device-to-device correlations. Moreover, we use neighbor device statistics for efficient defect screening. We show that despite the constraints imposed by multi-site testing, we successfully reap the benefits of adaptive testing in a multi-site environment.