Method and apparatus to use physical design information to detect IR drop prone test patterns
US7877715B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 28, 2008 |
| Grant date | Jan 25, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 5, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01R31/318533
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A method is provided to evaluate whether one or more test patterns is power safe for use during manufacturing testing of an integrated circuit that includes a nonuniform power grid and that includes a scan chain, the method comprising: assigning respective toggle count thresholds for respective power grid regions of the non-uniform power grid; and determining whether respective numbers of toggles by scan elements of the scan chain within one or more respective power grid regions meet respective toggle count thresholds for the one or more respective regions during at least one scan-shift cycle in the course of scan-in of a test pattern to the scan chain.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.