Modeling and testing transistor faults in content-addressable memories

A behavioral analysis of transistor faults and cell-stuck-at faults in a n-word by l-bit static CMOS CAM array is presented. First, a CAM cell is analyzed at the transistor-network, event-sequence and finite-state machine level. Then, a transistor stuck-(on/open) and cell-stuck-at fault model for a CAM is defined. We show that two out of eighteen possible CAM cell's transistor faults cannot be tested reliably by functional tests; however among faults that are testable, are all those which comprise data-retention faults. We also show that a test, originally designed to detect input stuck-at faults, also detects all reliably testable transistor faults and all cell-stuck-at faults in the model.