Title :
A TDC-based test platform for dynamic circuit aging characterization
Author :
Chen, Min ; Reddy, Vijay ; Carulli, John ; Krishnan, Srikanth ; Rentala, Vijay ; Srinivasan, Venkatesh ; Cao, Yu
Author_Institution :
Texas Instrum., Dallas, TX, USA
Abstract :
An on-chip 45nm test platform that directly monitors circuit performance degradation during dynamic operation is demonstrated. In contrast to traditional ring-oscillator (RO) based frequency measurements, it utilizes a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) with 2ps resolution to efficiently monitor circuit delay change on-the-fly. This new technique allows the capability of measuring signal edge degradation under various realistic circuit operating scenarios, such as asymmetric aging, dynamic voltage/frequency scaling, dynamic duty cycle factors, and temperature variations.
Keywords :
ageing; convertors; frequency measurement; integrated circuit testing; oscillators; RO; TDC-based test platform; dynamic circuit aging characterization; frequency measurements; ring-oscillator; signal edge degradation measurements; size 45 nm; time-to-digital converter; Aging; Clocks; Degradation; Delay; Frequency measurement; Logic gates; Stress; NBTI; RO; TDC; asymetric aging; duty cycle; relibility; test structure; variations;
Conference_Titel :
Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS), 2011 IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Monterey, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-9113-1
Electronic_ISBN :
1541-7026
DOI :
10.1109/IRPS.2011.5784448