Testing and fault tolerance of integrated circuits

Abstract

Today, the technological advances reduce the size of electronic components to the nanometer dimensions. This miniaturization makes manufacturing processes more complex and less reliable. This implies that it becomes very difficult to manufacture a circuit without any defects. Therefore, the manufacturing yield could decline significantly. To improve yield, fault-tolerant structures could be used in the future, with the objective to tolerate manufacturing defects to make more circuits operating. However, the higher expectation of reliability can only be met by more thorough and comprehensive testing of this structure. This paper analyzes the ability of these structures to tolerate manufacturing defects and the conditions to improve the yield. It is also shown that with the help of partitioning techniques the tolerance of TMR structures can be improved and therefore their reliability and manufacturing yield.