Production test engineering in FE-I4 system-on-chip to boost the reliability and high-quality demands in IBL applications

The article addresses production test development effort of the ATLAS FE-I4 integrated circuit. This particular production test targets manufacturing faults in the ICs and has been taken as a supplementary approach, besides standard functional test, to further decrease the risk of potential application failures. The Design-for-Test structures inside the digital part of the chip, together with the specially devised top-level simulations enabled straightforward test development and debug in the production test environment. The production test itself has been commissioned to the external test company, with the supervision of the FE-I4 team at the test floor.