Temperature-Aware X-filling for Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits

Abstract

The excess switching activity during testing increases the power dissipation beyond the normal operation of the circuit. The non-linear power distribution creates localized heating called hotspot which results in the structural damage and increased cooling package cost. The temperature of a particular block depends on heat generation and dissipation of the circuit blocks. The uniformity in power distribution among the circuit blocks is the key requirement for temperature reduction. The unspecified bits present in the test patterns are utilized to reduce the switching activity during testing. In this paper, we present an event-driven based power analysis and temperature aware X-filling to reduce the total power dissipation among the circuit blocks in such a way to reduce peak temperature. To reduce the peak temperature, the power dissipation of each block is monitored with the help of fillings the X-bits. The experiments are carried out with the ISCAS’89 benchmark circuit and show a significant reduction in peak temperature and ensure uniform power distribution during testing.

Keywords

• Hotspot,X-filling,Thermal-Uniformity,Test Power,Peak Temperature

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