IPSJ Transactions on System and LSI Design Methodology
Online ISSN : 1882-6687
ISSN-L : 1882-6687
An Algorithm for Diagnosing Transistor Shorts Using Gate-level Simulation
Yoshinobu HigamiKewal K. SalujaHiroshi TakahashiSin-ya KobayashiYuzo Takamatsu
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2009 Volume 2 Pages 250-262

Details
Abstract

Conventional stuck-at fault model is no longer sufficient to deal with the problems of nanometer geometries in modern Large Scale Integrated Circuits (LSIs). Test and diagnosis for transistor defects are required. In this paper we propose a fault diagnosis method for transistor shorts in combinational and full-scan circuits that are described at gale level design. Since it is difficult to describe the precise behavior of faulty transistors, we define two types of transistor short models by focusing on the output values of the corresponding faulty gate. Some of the salient features of the proposed diagnosis method are 1) it uses only gate-level simulation and does not use transistor-level simulation like SPICE, 2) it uses conventional stuck-at fault simulator yet it is able to handle transistor shorts, thus suitable for large circuits, and 3) it is efficient and accurate. We apply our method to ISCAS benchmark circuits to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.

Content from these authors
© 2009 by the Information Processing Society of Japan
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top