Robust Design-for-Testability Scheme for Conventional and Unique Defects in RRAMs

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Resistive Random Access Memories (RRAMs) are now undergoing commercialization, with substantial investment from many semiconductor companies. However, due to the immature manufacturing process, RRAMs are prone to exhibit new failure mechanisms and faults, which should be efficiently detected for high-volume production. Some of those faults are hard-to-detect, and require specific Design-for-Testability (DfT) circuit design. This paper proposes a DfT based on a parallel-reference write circuit that can detect all single-cell RRAM array faults: strong faults (directly causing logic errors) as well as weak faults (caused by parametric deviations). The scheme replaces the regular write driver, and enables the monitoring and comparison of the write current against multiple references during a single write operation. Hence, it serves as a DfT scheme and as a normal write circuit simultaneously. In addition, it enhances production testing speed and online fault detection, while keeping the area overhead low. Furthermore, the DfT is configurable for efficient diagnosis and yield learning. The results of the simulations performed do not only show that the DfT can detect single-cell conventional faults (due to interconnects and contacts) as well as unique RRAM faults (based on silicon data) that have been demonstrated to exist, but also that the DfT is robust to process variations.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Test Conference (ITC)
EditorsL. O’Conner
Place of PublicationPiscataway
PublisherIEEE
Pages374-383
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)979-8-3315-2013-7
ISBN (Print)979-8-3315-2014-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event2024 IEEE International Test Conference (ITC) - San Diego, United States
Duration: 3 Nov 20248 Nov 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings - International Test Conference
ISSN (Print)1089-3539

Conference

Conference2024 IEEE International Test Conference (ITC)
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego
Period3/11/248/11/24

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

  • RRAM testing
  • Defects
  • Faults
  • Diagnosis
  • DfT

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