An advanced optical diagnostic technique of IBM z990 eServer microprocessor

In this paper, we describe an advanced optical diagnostic technique used for diagnosing the IBM z990 eServer microprocessor (Slegel et al., 2004). Time-to-market pressure demands quick diagnostic turnaround time and high diagnostic resolution while the ever increasing design complexity, density, cycle time, and shrinking technologies dramatically add difficulties to diagnostics. Although design-for-test (DFT) and design-for-diagnostics (DFD) features are implemented in the latest microprocessors to help easing the diagnostic efforts, they may still not be sufficient to diagnose certain fails. The well-known picosecond imaging circuit analysis (PICA) (Kash and Tsang, 1997) tool, equipped with the high quantum efficiency superconducting single-photon detector (SSPD,) shows a unique diagnostic capability for optically probing the internal nodes of a chip. Several hard-to-diagnose examples will be used to demonstrate the unique capabilities of this technique

[1]  J.A. Waicukauski,et al.  Failure diagnosis of structured VLSI , 1989, IEEE Design & Test of Computers.

[2]  Thomas J. Snethen,et al.  Advanced microprocessor test strategy and methodology , 1997, IBM J. Res. Dev..

[3]  Melvin A. Breuer,et al.  Digital systems testing and testable design , 1990 .

[4]  J. A. Waicukauski.  Diagnosis of BIST Failures by PPSFP simulation , 1987 .

[5]  Janusz Rajski,et al.  A method of fault analysis for test generation and fault diagnosis , 1988, IEEE Trans. Comput. Aided Des. Integr. Circuits Syst..

[6]  Srikanth Venkataraman,et al.  A technique for fault diagnosis of defects in scan chains , 2001, Proceedings International Test Conference 2001 (Cat. No.01CH37260).

[7]  G. Woods,et al.  Backside infrared probing for static voltage drop and dynamic timing measurements , 2001, 2001 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers. ISSCC (Cat. No.01CH37177).

[8]  Yuejian Wu,et al.  Diagnosis of scan chain failures , 1998, Proceedings 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI Systems (Cat. No.98EX223).

[9]  Nandakurnar N. Tendolkar,et al.  Automated diagnostic methodology for the IBM 3081 processor complex , 1982 .

[10]  Stephen Y. H. Su,et al.  A New Approach to the Fault Location of Combinational Circuits , 1972, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[11]  J. Kash,et al.  Dynamic internal testing of CMOS circuits using hot luminescence , 1997, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[12]  Franco Stellari,et al.  Testing of Ultra Low Voltage VLSI Chips using the Superconducting Single-Photon Detector (SSPD) , 2004, Microelectron. Reliab..

[13]  Melvin A. Breuer,et al.  Fault Diagnosis Based on Effect-Cause Analysis: An Introduction , 1980, 17th Design Automation Conference.

[14]  O. Okunev,et al.  Picosecond superconducting single-photon optical detector , 2001 .

[15]  Robert E. Beaudoin,et al.  Structured Trace Diagnosis for LSSD Board Testing -- An Alternative to Full Fault Simulated Diagnosis , 1981, 18th Design Automation Conference.

[16]  S. Charbonneau,et al.  Simultaneous subnanosecond timing information and 2D spatial information from imaging photomultiplier tubes , 1987 .

[17]  R. J. McNulty,et al.  Partner SRLs for improved shift register diagnostics , 1992, Digest of Papers. 1992 IEEE VLSI Test Symposium.

[18]  Franco Motika,et al.  Diagnostic techniques for the IBM S/390 600 MHz G5 microprocessor , 1999, International Test Conference 1999. Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.99CH37034).

[19]  Timothy J. Slegel,et al.  The IBM eServer z990 microprocessor , 2004, IBM J. Res. Dev..

[20]  Paul H. Bardell,et al.  Self-Testing of Multichip Logic Modules , 1982, International Test Conference.

[21]  Geetani Edirisooriya,et al.  Diagnosis of scan path failures , 1995, Proceedings 13th IEEE VLSI Test Symposium.

[22]  Sandip Kundu,et al.  On diagnosis of faults in a scan-chain , 1993, Digest of Papers Eleventh Annual 1993 IEEE VLSI Test Symposium.

[23]  Kevin Stanley,et al.  High-Accuracy Flush-and-Scan Software Diagnostic , 2001, IEEE Des. Test Comput..

[24]  S. Narayanan,et al.  An efficient scheme to diagnose scan chains , 1997, Proceedings International Test Conference 1997.

[25]  William H. Kautz,et al.  Fault Testing and Diagnosis in Combinational Digital Circuits , 1968, IEEE Transactions on Computers.