A parallel built-in self-diagnostic method for nontraditional faults of embedded memory arrays

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a built-in self-diagnostic march-based algorithm that identifies faulty memory cells based on a recently introduced nontraditional fault model. It is developed based on the DiagRSMarch algorithm, which is a diagnostic algorithm to identify traditional faults for embedded memory arrays. A minimal set of additional operations is added to DiagRSMarch for identifying the nontraditional faults without affecting the diagnostic coverage of the traditional faults. The embedded memory arrays are accessed using a bidirectional serial interfacing architecture which minimizes the routing overhead introduced by the diagnosis hardware. Using the concepts of the bidirectional interfacing technique, parallel testing, and redundant-tolerant operations, the diagnostic process can be accomplished efficiently at-speed with minimal hardware overhead.