In-Field Test for Functional Safety

The strict dependability requirements posed by the current regulations and standards for safety-critical systems adopted in several fields (e.g., aero-space, automotive, biomedical) strongly impact the design and test solutions to be adopted. In particular, they require effective solutions not only for end-of-manufacturing test, but also for in-field test, i.e., for the tests which are performed while the system is already in the operational phase. This lecture will introduce the key goals, the current solutions and best practices, the future challenges of high quality in-field test. Specialized techniques and industrial standards for in-field testing of complex ICs are introduced. The reuse for in-field test of design for test structures and test data developed for end-of-manufacturing test is discussed, including the limitations and research challenges. Structural test methods can be complemented by functional test methods; hence, special emphasis will be devoted to overview state-of-the-art and leading edge research for functional testing.

  • Introduction and motivations
    • Requirements
    • Constraints
    • Scenarios
  • Summary about structural test of SoCs
  • Functional Solutions for SoC in-system test
    • Software-based Self-Test (SBST)
    • Test program generation techniques
  • Advanced issues
    • Test compaction
    • Functionally untestable fault identification
    • Hybrid solutions
  • Conclusions

Students should have a basic knowledge about SoC design techniques. They should also know the basic concepts about test and dependability.