Transparent-Test Methodologies for Random Access Memories Without/With ECC

Author

Jin-Fu Li

Volume

26

Issue

10

fYear

2007

Firstpage

1888

Lastpage

1893

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic procedure for transforming a bit-oriented March test into a transparent word-oriented March test. The test-time complexity of the transparent word-oriented March tests converted by the proposed method is only (P + 5 log₂ B + 2)N for an N x B-bit Random Access Memory, and the test-time complexity of the corresponding signature-prediction test is QN. Here, P and Q denote the number of total Read/Write and Read test operations of the original bit-oriented March test. A transparent-test methodology for memories with error-correction code (ECC) is also proposed. This methodology can test and locate faulty cells, and no signature prediction is needed. The test-time complexity of the proposed transparent-test methodology for memories with ECC is only (P + 5 log₂ B + 2) N.

Keywords

computational complexity; error correction codes; integrated circuit testing; random-access storage; ECC; bit-oriented March test; error-correction code; random access memories; signature-prediction test; test-time complexity; transparent word-oriented March test; transparent-test methodologies; Circuit faults; Circuit testing; Computational modeling; Error correction codes; Fault detection; Integrated circuit reliability; Random access memory; Read-write memory; System testing; System-on-a-chip; Error-correction code (ECC); March test; random-access memory (RAM); reliability; soft errors; transparent test;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0070

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TCAD.2007.895772

Filename

4305251