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The PROACTIVE laboratory is developing software tools to reduce IC design, testing, and verification time, which now comprise 70 percent of design time.
Under a new grant from the NSF, the team, headed by Michael Hsiao, is developing revolutionary graph-theoretic algorithms to improve the design verification for large and complex sequential systems. They are developing novel automatic test pattern generation techniques to use where conventional binary-decision-diagram (BDD) approaches fail. Recent results show that an order of magnitude improvement in computational complexity can be achieved with the proposed approach.
Improving the testing of high-performance chips is the goal of a new contract with Intel. Higher clock rates, shrinking geometries, longer wires, and increased density make chips more vulnerable to speed-related failures. “Our research is to address global sequential testing issues on delay-related defects, with a benefit of both reducing delay test pattern size and potential yield loss.”
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