Automating Postsilicon Debugging and Repair

Modern IC designs have reached unparalleled levels of complexity, resulting in more and more bugs discovered after design tape-out However, so far only very few EDA tools for post-silicon debugging have been reported in the literature. In this work we develop a methodology and new algorithms to automate this debugging process. Key innovations in our technique include support for the physical constraints specific to post-silicon debugging and the ability to repair functional errors through subtle modifications of an existing layout. In addition, our proposed post-silicon debugging methodology (FogClear) can repair some electrical errors while preserving functional correctness. Thus, by automating this traditionally manual debugging process, our contributions promise to reduce engineers' debugging effort. As our empirical results show, we can automatically repair more than 70% of our benchmark designs.