Automated failure population creation for validating integrated circuit diagnosis methods

Integrated circuit (IC) diagnosis typically analyzes failed chips by reasoning about their responses to test patterns to deduce what has gone wrong. Current trends use diagnosis as the first step in extracting valuable information from a large population of failing ICs that include, for example, design-feature failure rates and defect-occurrence statistics. However, it is difficult to examine the accuracy of these techniques because of the unavailability of sufficient fail data where such information is known. This paper describes an approach for benchmarking and verifying diagnosis techniques through failure population creation that builds on prior work in this area. Specifically, we describe how a population of realistic IC failures is created through circuit-level simulation of extracted layouts. The most novel feature of the work is that the virtual test responses produced are both a precise function of defect type and the three-dimensional location within the layout. The extended approach is demonstrated using twelve placed-and-routed circuits. An example application of the developed framework is given to illustrate the utility of having a failure population where the location and type of defect are known a priori.