Automating Post-Silicon Debugging and Repair

Modern IC designs have reached unparalleled levels of overall complexity, resulting in more and more bugs discovered post-silicon. However, few EDA tools can assist engineers in post-silicon debugging, since it requires a high level of sophistication. In this work we develop a methodology and new algorithms to automate this debugging process. Key innovations in our techniques include support for the unusual physical constraints of post-silicon debugging and ability to repair functional errors through subtle modifications of an existing layout. Our proposed post-silicon debugging methodology (FogClear) can also repair some electrical errors while preserving functional correctness. Thus, by automating this traditionally manual debugging process, our contributions promise to greatly reduce engineers ’ debugging effort. As our empirical results show, we can repair more than 70 % of the representative circuits automatically. 1