Detecting delay faults using power supply transient signal analysis

A delay-fault testing strategy based on the analysis of power supply transient signals is presented. The method is an extension to a Go/No-Go device testing method called Transient Signal Analysis (TSA). TSA detects defects through the analysis of a set of power supply transient waveforms in the time or frequency domain, e.g., Fourier phase components. A recent extension to TSA demonstrated a correlation between the V_DDT Fourier phase components and path delays in defect-free devices. The method proposed here is able to detect increases in delay due to resistive shorting and open defects using a similar technique. In particular simulation results show that a delay defective device can be distinguished from a defect-free device through an anomaly in the Fourier phase correlation profile of the device