An access timing measurement unit of embedded memory

Author

Lee, Shu-Rong ; Hsiao, Ming-Jun ; Chang, Tsin-Yuan

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

fYear

2002

fDate

18-20 Nov. 2002

Firstpage

104

Lastpage

109

Abstract

As deep sub-micron techniques evolve, embedded memories are dominating the yield, while the testing and measurement issues are more difficult due to access limitations. To solve the testing problem, BIST circuits are developed for testing the functionality of embedded memory, but not for the AC parameters. Based on the dual-slope principle, a new memory access time measurement unit for embedded memories with separate time-to-voltage and voltage-to-time architecture is proposed in this paper to achieve at-speed measurement with 50 ps resolution, where the measurement error is smaller than one LSB, and the linearity error is 1.19%. In conjunction with the March-based BIST circuit, the chip area is 262×92 μm² under a 0.35 μm 2P4M CMOS process.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; built-in self test; comparators (circuits); integrated circuit measurement; integrated circuit testing; integrated memory circuits; logic testing; measurement errors; peak detectors; time measurement; timing; 0.35 micron; 262 micron; 92 micron; AC parameter testing; CMOS chip area; IC yield/testing/measurement; March-based BIST circuits; SRAM; at-speed measurement resolution; comparators; dual-slope principles; embedded memory access timing measurement units; functionality testing; measurement errors; memory access limitations; peak detectors; time-to-voltage measurement; voltage-to-time measurement; Built-in self-test; CMOS process; Circuit testing; Linearity; Measurement errors; Measurement units; Semiconductor device measurement; Time measurement; Timing; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Test Symposium, 2002. (ATS '02). Proceedings of the 11th Asian

ISSN

1081-7735

Print_ISBN

0-7695-1825-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ATS.2002.1181695

Filename

1181695