DefSim: Measurement Environment for CMOS Defects

This article describes a measurement environment for study of two CMOS defect types: opens and shorts. These defect types are physically implemented in silicon in a big variety of locations inside a set of digital standard cells and small circuits. The integrated circuit (IC) with the collection of defects is mounted onto a plug-and-play measurement box, which is connected to the PC via USB cable. Two measurement methods are supported by IC: voltage and I_DDQ testing. The DefSim bundle represents a unique and easy to handle educational and research environment. In the paper we also consider a simple learning flow, which is targeted on students whose main specialization is general microelectronics (not the digital testing specifically)