For more information contact:
Gene Roth Pam Wasserman
Genesys Testware, Inc. Lee Public Relations,
510-661-0791 x204 650-363-0142
gene@genesystest.com pam@leepr.com
GENESYS TESTWARE BIST SUPPORTS ARTISAN MEMORY CORES
Soft repair technology lets users avoid laser programmable fuse repair
FREMONT, California, August 5, 2002-Genesys Testware, Inc., a leading supplier of embedded test solutions, today announced that the company will also support Artisan's Flex-RepairTM Memories with the Genesys's MBISTmakerTM product. Users of Artisan Flex-Repair Memories now can implement the Genesys dynamic soft repair capability, thereby avoiding the arduous and expensive laser programmable fuse repair technology that is commonly used today.
With the Genesys dynamic soft repair capability, users of Artisan memory cores will no longer be required to purchase expensive laser programming machinery or deal with the complicated test results transferal process that is characteristic of laser programmable fuse repair.
Dynamic soft repair technology gives the customer a complete on-chip repair solution. Instead of using laser-programmable fuses, dynamic soft repair utilizes multiplexors that can switch between a bad data bit and a good redundant bit. Every time the chip powers up, the memory is tested and reconfigured if a failure is present. With fuse technology, laser programmable fuses are used to correct bad data bits in a memory. Faulty chips need to be run on a separate and expensive laser-programming machine to correct the memory failures.
“Our goal is to demystify the use of redundancy in embedded memories. Artisan's Flex-Repair Memory solutions are designed with an “open-standard” interface to allow easy interoperability with leading embedded memory test solutions,” said Dhrumil Gandhi, senior vice president of product technology at Artisan. “We are pleased to have this support for Artisan's Flex-Repair Memories in Genesys's MBISTmaker product.”
Implementing soft repair technology
Genesys's MBISTmaker enables Artisan memory customers to implement a memory repair scheme that is either based on fuse or dynamic soft repair technology. Genesys Testware customers, who are using Artisan memories, can now easily create Built-In Self-Test, Diagnosis and Repair (BISTDR) wrapper circuits around the Artisan Flex-Repair memories by invoking the Artisan short-cut function in their MBISTmaker Tcl scripts. The user can optionally add different types of fuse boxes automatically to the BISTDR wrapper by setting the appropriate variables in the MBISTmaker Tcl scripts. This gives the user the flexibility to decide between laser repair and dynamic soft repair after the chip has taped out.
How Artisan's Flex-Repair and Genesys's MBISTmaker work together
Artisan's Flex-Repair Memories provide an optimal redundancy scheme that is easy-to-use, reliable and cost efficient. It allows customers complete control over various aspects of redundancy implementations. Users can select, through the GUI, whether to generate memory instances, with or without redundancy, in order to improve memory yield. Also, users can choose to combine the memory with, either a laser fuse or dynamic soft repair implementation. This flexibility enables customers to get the most appropriate solution for their products.
In an actual application, the Artisan Flex-Repair Memories are configured with redundant bits. The Genesys MBISTmaker creates the necessary processing logic to perform the required memory tests. If an error is found diagnostic information about the failure is either shifted out and remapped to physical co-ordinates for laser fuse blowing if a fuse repair scheme is used, or to the on-board multiplexors if dynamic soft repair is used to repair the memory.
“By adding this additional capability to our MBISTmaker product, customers who use the Artisan Flex-Repair memories can now implement a complete, silicon proven yield enhancement solution,” said Bejoy Oomman, President of Genesys Testware. “With this addition we are now able to offer the most comprehensive embedded memory repair product in the industry.”
Pricing and availability
MBISTmaker with support for Artisan Flex-Repair memories is available now. MBISTmaker starts at US$42,000 for a single project license and US$140,000 for a perpetual, site license.
About Genesys Testware
Genesys Testware, Inc. provides a comprehensive suite of embedded test solutions that covers memory test, logic test and boundary scan. Its products are all silicon-proven in various customer designs. Genesys Testware's corporate headquarters are located at 76 Whitney Place, Fremont, CA 94539. For more information, please visit the company's web site at http://www.genesystest.com
Genesys's MBISTmakerTM also supports Dolphin Technology, Virage Logic and Virtual Silicon Technology memory cores.
MBISTmaker is a trademark of Genesys Testware, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners