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Validating Clocking Subsystem in Post Silicon Environment

Received: 17 May 2021    Accepted: 2 July 2021    Published: 13 July 2021
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Abstract

With tremendous growth of automotive and consumer market, demand of semiconductors is also growing. Every new day comes up with a new micro-controller with upgraded feature set. As the feature set is increasing, so is the complexity of the devices. This increased complexity majorly impacts the clocking and power sub system of a micro controller. In this paper, we will talk about clocking sub-system that is also known as HEART of any micro controller. To have a healthy heart of a micro controller, there should be robust testing of micro controller under various conditions. In a multiple clocking domain architecture, there are major issues of SoC getting stuck or wrong clock output. Sometimes, clock can get glitchy due to extreme weather conditions as well. It can also malfunction due to wrong configurations or a marginal configuration. So, to rule out all this kind of issues, randomization, sweeps, testing under different process, voltage and thermal conditions plays an important role. Though it is never possible to cover all the combinations during bench validation of these complex SoC, but in this paper, we have tried to capture some type of tests that can be performed to test the robustness of a micro controller.

Published in Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems (Volume 9, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12
Page(s) 69-72
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Clocking, Post-silicon, Validation, Stress Testing

References
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[3] A. J. Martin and M. Nystrom, "Asynchronous Techniques for System-onChip Design," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 94, no. 6, pp. 1089-1120, 2006.
[4] C. L. Seitz, "System Timing," in Introduction to VLSI Systems, AddisonWesley, 1980, pp. 218-262
[5] Ling Lin, Zhong Tang, Nianxiong Tan, and Xiaohui Xiao, (2020), Power Management in Low-Power MCUs for Energy IoT Applications, Volume 2020 |Article ID 8819236 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8819236
[6] Saša A Janković, Dejan M Maksimović, (2003) Power saving modes in modern microcontroller design, diagnostics and reliability, February 2003 Microelectronics Reliability 43 (2): 319-326 DOI: 10.1016/S0026-2714(02)00324-4
[7] Sharon Darley, Detecting Loss of Clock on Modular Microcontrollers, Motorola Semiconductor Engineering Bulletin, Retrieved 11 Sep 2019, from Detecting Loss of Clock on Modular Microcontrollers
[8] Curtin, Mike and Paul O’Brien. “Phase-Locked Loops for High Frequency Receivers and Transmitters.” Analog Dialogue, Vol. 33, 1999.
[9] EDN, (2014), Synchronizer techniques for multi-clock domain SoCs & FPGAs, Retrieved 1 June 2020, from https://www.edn.com/synchronizer-techniques-for-multi-clock-domain-socs-fpgas/
[10] Florent Checa, Arion Entreprise, The Challenge of the Clock Domain Crossing verification in DO-254, Retrieved 1 June 2020, from https://www.design-reuse.com/articles/29080/clock-domain-crossing-verification-in-do-254.html
[11] Satyanarayana Murthy Madimatla, Sandeep Jain, Vivek Sharma, (2019), hardened-reset-domain-crossing-circuit. Retrieved 11 Mar 2020, from https://www.eenewseurope.com/design-center/security-hardened-reset-domain-crossing-circuit-1
[12] Jiang, D.; Burgos, R.; Wang, F.; Boroyevich, D. Temperature dependent characteristics of SiC devices: Performance evaluation and loss calculation. IEEE Trans. Power Electron. 2012, 27, 1013–1024.
[13] Lelis, A. J.; Habersat, D.; Green, R.; Ogunniyi, A.; Gurfinkel, M.; Suehle, J.; Goldsman, N. Time dependence of bias-stress-induced SiC MOSFET threshold voltage instability measurements. IEEE Trans. Power Electron. 2008, 55, 1835–1840.
[14] Z. Al Tarawneh, G. Russell, and A. Yakovlev, "An Analysis of the Effect of Process Variations on Performance of C-Element Structures Implemented in Bulk CMOS and SOI Technologies," in 2nd European Workshop on CMOS variability, Grenoble, France, 2011.
[15] Z. Al Tarawneh, G. Russell, and A. Yakovlev, "An analysis of SEU robustness of C-element structures implemented in bulk CMOS and SOI technologies," in International Conference on Microelectronics (ICM), 2010,, pp. 280-283.
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  • APA Style

    Atulesh Kansal, Himanshu Aggarwal. (2021). Validating Clocking Subsystem in Post Silicon Environment. Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems, 9(2), 69-72. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12

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    ACS Style

    Atulesh Kansal; Himanshu Aggarwal. Validating Clocking Subsystem in Post Silicon Environment. Autom. Control Intell. Syst. 2021, 9(2), 69-72. doi: 10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12

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    AMA Style

    Atulesh Kansal, Himanshu Aggarwal. Validating Clocking Subsystem in Post Silicon Environment. Autom Control Intell Syst. 2021;9(2):69-72. doi: 10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12,
      author = {Atulesh Kansal and Himanshu Aggarwal},
      title = {Validating Clocking Subsystem in Post Silicon Environment},
      journal = {Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems},
      volume = {9},
      number = {2},
      pages = {69-72},
      doi = {10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.acis.20210902.12},
      abstract = {With tremendous growth of automotive and consumer market, demand of semiconductors is also growing. Every new day comes up with a new micro-controller with upgraded feature set. As the feature set is increasing, so is the complexity of the devices. This increased complexity majorly impacts the clocking and power sub system of a micro controller. In this paper, we will talk about clocking sub-system that is also known as HEART of any micro controller. To have a healthy heart of a micro controller, there should be robust testing of micro controller under various conditions. In a multiple clocking domain architecture, there are major issues of SoC getting stuck or wrong clock output. Sometimes, clock can get glitchy due to extreme weather conditions as well. It can also malfunction due to wrong configurations or a marginal configuration. So, to rule out all this kind of issues, randomization, sweeps, testing under different process, voltage and thermal conditions plays an important role. Though it is never possible to cover all the combinations during bench validation of these complex SoC, but in this paper, we have tried to capture some type of tests that can be performed to test the robustness of a micro controller.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Validating Clocking Subsystem in Post Silicon Environment
    AU  - Atulesh Kansal
    AU  - Himanshu Aggarwal
    Y1  - 2021/07/13
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12
    T2  - Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems
    JF  - Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems
    JO  - Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems
    SP  - 69
    EP  - 72
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5591
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20210902.12
    AB  - With tremendous growth of automotive and consumer market, demand of semiconductors is also growing. Every new day comes up with a new micro-controller with upgraded feature set. As the feature set is increasing, so is the complexity of the devices. This increased complexity majorly impacts the clocking and power sub system of a micro controller. In this paper, we will talk about clocking sub-system that is also known as HEART of any micro controller. To have a healthy heart of a micro controller, there should be robust testing of micro controller under various conditions. In a multiple clocking domain architecture, there are major issues of SoC getting stuck or wrong clock output. Sometimes, clock can get glitchy due to extreme weather conditions as well. It can also malfunction due to wrong configurations or a marginal configuration. So, to rule out all this kind of issues, randomization, sweeps, testing under different process, voltage and thermal conditions plays an important role. Though it is never possible to cover all the combinations during bench validation of these complex SoC, but in this paper, we have tried to capture some type of tests that can be performed to test the robustness of a micro controller.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • NXP Semiconductors India Pvt. Ltd., Noida, India

  • NXP Semiconductors India Pvt. Ltd., Noida, India

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