Facilitating rapid first silicon debug

Semiconductor manufacturers aim to deliver products to market within a short span of time in order to gain market share. There are several facets of introducing a product to market - design, manufacturing, first silicon debug, and ramp to volume. Of these, first silicon debug time contributes significantly towards reduced product cycle time if it can be kept short. In this paper, we discuss the infrastructure, design tools, test tools and debug tools required to achieve successful first silicon debug. We describe a production device that employs these infrastructure requirements, thereby demonstrating the advantages of following the guidelines. The paper also highlight the ill effects of not adhering to the guidelines.