A voltage island is defined as a core or design region that is powered by a separate supply voltage. Each island can then be powered up or down based on operational need resulting in an overall power saving. The on-chip repair process involves reconfiguring defective memories to swap out defective memory elements with spares. The reconfiguration data is stored next to each defective memory on power-up by the self-repair capabilities.
LogicVision’s new self-repair solution keeps track of voltage island power activities and ensures that any re-activated defective memory is properly reconfigured. The solution supports any number of voltage islands and has been optimized to reduce the areas overhead needed for the self-repair infrastructure as well as the time required to reconfigure defective memories. The power-aware memory self-repair capability is an option to LogicVision’s ETMemory product.
Stephen Pateras, vice-president of Marketing at LogicVision, said: Our new power-aware memory self-repair solution is the result of an on-going effort to ensure our BIST solutions fully support evolving low-power design practices.
