Development of the special software tools for the defect/fault analysis in the complex gates from standard cell library

Abstract

The development of special software tool named FIESTA (Faults Identification and Estimation of Test Ability) for the defect/fault analysis in the complex gates from industrial cell library is considered. This software tool is destined for the test developers and IC designers and is aimed at: a) probabilistic-based analysis of CMOS physical defects in VLSI circuits: b) facilitation of the work on development of hierarchical probabilistic automatic generation of test patterns; c) improvement of the layout in order to decrease the influence of spot defects on IC manufacturability. We consider the principle concepts of the FIESTA development. They are based on the developed approaches to 1) the identification and estimation of the probability of actual faulty functions resulting from shorts and opens caused by spot defects in the conductive layers of IC layout, and to 2) the evaluation of the effectiveness/usefulness of the test vector components in faults detection.