Abstract
Electronic products and systems are widely used in industrial network systems, control devices, and data acquisition devices across many industry sectors. Failures of such electronic systems might lead to unexpected downtime, loss of productivity, additional work for repairs, and delay in product and service development. Thus, developing an appropriate sensing technique is necessary, because it is the first step in system fault diagnosis and prognosis. Many sensing techniques often require external and additional sensing devices, which might disturb system operation and consequently increase operating costs. In this study, we present an on-chip health sensing method for non-destructive and non-invasive interconnect degradation detection. Bit error rate (BER), which represents data integrity during digital signal transmission, was selected to sense interconnect health without connecting external sensing devices. To verify the health sensing performance, corrosion tests were conducted with in situ monitoring of the BER and direct current (DC) resistance. The eye size, extracted from the BER measurement, showed the highest separation between the intact and failed interconnect, as well as a gradual transition, compared with abrupt changes in the DC resistance, during interconnect degradation. These experimental results demonstrate the potential of the proposed sensing method for on-chip interconnect health monitoring applications without disturbing system operation.
Highlights
Maintenance of systems and assets is critical for the prevention of loss in revenue owing to unexpected system downtime
We present an on-chip health sensing method for non-destructive and non-invasive interconnect degradation detection based on digital signal characteristics; in particular, bit error rate (BER), defined as the ratio of the number of erroneously transmitted bits to the generated bits, was used to measure the physical degradation of an interconnect
While the eye size gradually decreased until around 1684 min, i.e., the time to failure, it began to lose its shape thereafter due to decreased until around 1684 min, i.e., the time to failure, it began to lose its shape thereafter due to continued chemical stress. These results indicate that the Bit error rate (BER) matrix reflects Signal integrity (SI), and has the potential continued chemical stress. These results indicate that the BER matrix reflects SI, and has the potential to serve as an on-chip interconnect health sensing method in real time without requiring additional to serve as an on-chip interconnect health sensing method in real time without requiring additional sensing devices
Summary
Maintenance of systems and assets is critical for the prevention of loss in revenue owing to unexpected system downtime. Aryan et al [10] reviewed the sensing devices, such as X-ray, scanning acoustic microscope, infrared (IR) camera sensor magnetic field, and optical vibration measurement, for integrated circuit (IC) package inspection. These existing methods often require external and additional sensing devices, such as multimeters, oscilloscopes, and VNAs, which might disturb real-time system operation of these packages or devices, and eventually increase operating costs. Accelerated life tests on solder joints were conducted with in situ monitoring of the BER and DC resistance to verify the health sensing performance of the proposed method, as well as compare it with that of the DC resistance measurement.
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