Mastering AI Chip Complexity
Explore challenges and solutions in AI chip development
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Overview
As semiconductor designs grow increasingly complex, ensuring high test coverage and product quality while managing cost and time-to-market is a critical challenge. Google, a leader in innovative SoC development, partnered with Synopsys to address these challenges by deploying the Synopsys High-Speed Access Test (HSAT) solution for System-Level Test (SLT), alongside TestMAX ALE.
Challenges
As Google’s SoC designs became more complex and test requirements more demanding, the team faced several key challenges:
- Achieving high test coverage for advanced fault models without exceeding test time and cost, as traditional GPIO and TAP-based access methods could not keep up with modern requirements.
- Integrating a non-intrusive, high-speed test solution (HSAT) that leveraged existing USB/PCIe interfaces, while ensuring minimal impact on mission-mode logic and maintaining security.
- Adapting verification, diagnostic, and tool flows to support unified, efficient testing across both ATE and SLT platforms.
Solution
To address these challenges, Google and Synopsys embarked on a close two-year collaboration, deploying a suite of Synopsys solutions with the HSAT (High-Speed Access Test) IP as the foundation for enabling structural test during SLT using ATE production test sequences delivered through a functional USB interface:
- HSAT (High-Speed Access Test) IP:
- Served as the backbone of the solution, enabling direct application of ATE production test sequences on the SLT platform via the existing USB functional interface.
- Allowed structural test patterns—such as scan and MBIST—to be reused seamlessly across both ATE and SLT, ensuring high test coverage and reducing engineering effort.
- Integrated with minimal design intrusion, leveraging the mission-mode USB path to maintain functional integrity and operational efficiency.
- TestMAX ALE Software:
- Worked in conjunction with SLM HSAT IP to automate the conversion of standard ATE test patterns into HSAT-compatible USB packets, streamlining the deployment of structural tests on SLT and automating the conversion of error data returned from scan test.
- Provided a unified workflow for DFT engineers to generate, validate, and deliver test content for both ATE and SLT platforms.
- Advanced Diagnostics:
- Leveraged the detailed error data returned from SLT runs enabled by HSAT, with TestMAX ALE providing comprehensive diagnostic features for root cause analysis and reverse mapping.
This integrated approach, with HSAT at its core, empowered Google to perform robust structural testing during SLT using ATE-quality patterns delivered over USB, while also enabling in-depth diagnostics based on real SLT data.
Results
Through this collaboration, Google successfully enabled high-coverage, cost-effective testing of their advanced SoCs on SLT platforms. The HSAT solution, together with TestMAX ALE, delivered:
- Substantial reduction in test cost and time by offloading advanced pattern testing to SLT.
- Improved test coverage and DPPM rates, supporting Google’s quality goals.
- Streamlined and unified test flows across platforms, accelerating time-to-market.
- Enhanced diagnostic capabilities, enabling early bug detection and efficient root cause analysis.
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