Abstract
This study analyzes the effects of crosstalk-induced faults due to parameter variation during the manufacture of DRAMs. The focus is on read operations, which are sensitive to crosstalk and to neighborhood data patterns. Analytical studies and numerical simulations have been used to investigate a class of crosstalk reading faults (CRF) that read operations are susceptible to. The results reveal that there exist worst case data patterns in each physical RAM block and cell arrangement. The worst case data pattern occurs when neighboring and victim bit-lines switch to opposite values at the same time. If the bit-line arrangement is known, the test for the CRFs is quite trivial. If there is no knowledge of the internal chip structure, a deterministic pattern cannot be assigned and therefore a generic test method is needed. In this paper, a test algorithm is proposed that exhausts every state of any 3 or 5 bit-lines of a RAM block.
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Zemo Yang is a senior engineering manager in S3 Graphics Inc. in Fremont, California. He has fifteen years of experience in electrical modeling and signal integrity analysis, IC packaging, high-speed module design, and IC product and test engineering. Zemo received his M.S. degrees in physics and electrical engineering from the University of Arizona in 1988 and 1991 respectively. He is currently PhD candidate at Santa Clara University.
Samiha Mourad is the William and Janice Terry Professor of Engineering at Santa Clara University where she chairs the Electrical Engineering Department and conducts research in ASIC Design and Testing. Prior to joining Santa Clara University, she spent several years as a research associate at the Center for Reliable Computing of Stanford University. She has authored and coauthored over 100 conference and journal papers, and three books. Her latest book, Principles of Testing Digital Systems, was published by Wiley and Sons in 2000.
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Yang, Z., Mourad, S. Crosstalk Induced Fault Analysis and Test in DRAMs. J Electron Test 22, 173–187 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-006-7486-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-006-7486-1