Structural In-Field Diagnosis for Random Logic Circuits

In-field diagnosability of electronic components in larger systems such as automobiles becomes a necessity for both customers and system integrators. Traditionally, functional diagnosis is applied during integration and in workshops for in-field failures or break-downs. However, functional diagnosis does not yield sufficient coverage to allow for short repair times and fast reaction on systematic failures in the production. Structural diagnosis could yield the desired coverage, yet recent built-in architectures which could be reused in the field either do not reveal diagnostic information or necessitate dedicated test schemes. The paper at hand closes this gap with a new built-in test method for autonomous in-field testing and in-field diagnostic data collection. The proposed Built-In Self-Diagnosis method (BISD) is based on the standard BIST architecture and can seamlessly be integrated with recent, commercial DfT techniques. Experiments with industrial designs show that its overhead is marginal and its structural diagnostic capabilities are comparable to those of external diagnosis on high-end test equipment.